Estudios Culturales en Lengua Inglesa I

Juan Carlos Hidalgo Ciudad

Grado en Estudios Ingleses

 Prehistoric Britain

Not an island at the beginning, but connected to the mainland. The separation took place
later on. First evidence of human life on the island around 200,000-125,000 BC.

We dont know much about them, thus they are irrelevant from a cultural standpoint
since we lack significant data.

During the Mesolithic period, the glacial period took responsibility on the separation of
the islands. The water also destroyed much of the food resources, and spread the forests.

The Neolithic period shows first signs of civilization and culture (around 4000 BC):
agriculture, animal farming, pottery, etc. The first pottery items we have most come from this
period.

It is during the Neolithic that first signs of architecture are found as well: constructions,
buildings; causewayed [pavimentado] camps (as a means of defense); burial mounds (barrows,
more elaborated tombs on small hills or elevated terrain); chambered tombs and henges
(believed to be ritual centers). Stonehenge, estimated around 2000 BC.

Celts and Romans

Celts. 6th century BC: Iron Age or Celtic Culture appears and develops in the British Isles.
They came from the mainland Europe, around present-day France/Belgium. It wasnt an
invasion, but a gradual settlement around a hundred years (up until the Romans). They are not
nation nor do they identify themselves as Celts (it was coined in the future, meaning
barbarian).

There were different tribes who waged war between them. We cant talk much about
them as a culture because of this, since they didnt share a set of ideas or beliefs.

Their settlement correspond to the Iron Age in Britain.

The most notorious tribe is perhaps the Belgic tribes during the end of the 2nd century BC.
They had a Martial (military) aristocracy and a druidic society.
(http://www.britainexpress.com/history)

Celtic family life: the tribe was the main social structure, thus they were closely related to
each other and bound by tradition and ancestry. They were also composed from different
clans, each other with their own set of rules and traditions as well.
Once a child was born, they were somewhat ignored by their mothers and taken care of by
their aunts and uncles to be fostered. Women were not limited to housekeeping: they had the
same obligations and responsibilities as men. They had a matriarchal structure in that respect.

They fought naked, painted in blue normally, some wearing a token hanging from the
neck for protection purposes. They considered the strength and souls were held in the head,
thus they needed protecting.

The druids had many functions. Doctors, political advisors, priests They had their own
universities, teaching their knowledge orally usually. They were also carriers of supernatural
powers; they held more power than leaders of the community.

(http://www.primaryhomeworkhelp.co.uk)

The Romans

An Empire as we know, forever expanding throughout Europe. As they conquered

present-day France, leaded by Julius Caesar, he decided to punish the Bretons for their help to
the Gallics in France, thus the next year of the conquering (55 BC, thus 54 BC), he marched
onward to Britain with his army. The Celtic tribes unified against the Romans, although that
expedition was a punitive one, not really interested in conquering the British Isles, returning to
Rome then. The Celtics kept the Isles.

On 43 AD (Agnus Dei?), Claudius, decides to claim the British Isles for the Empire, Aulus
Plautius leading the expedition. Britannia, as was called by the Romans, is invaded and claimed
as a Roman Province. Aristocracy is sent to establish the government.
The Celts remained there, reaching an agreement with the Roman delegation and leaders for a
peace truce. Client Kings was the name for the tribe leaders that remained mostly
independent but not free of taxes and becoming vassals of the Romans.
The tribes that didnt accept the truce left towards the other islands, such as the nowadays
Scottish Highlands (mountainous territory), which remained free from Roman grasp. In time
they were named Picts and Caledonians. Cornwall was also free from the Empire.

There was a coexistence of Britons (the vassal Celtic tribes, which were not a nation as
such, must I remind) and Romans. At the beginning, it worked.
 Some of the most notorious tribes whose client kings were vassals of, were the Iceni and
the Trinovantes and allies such as Brigantes. They circled the main Roman settlement, so it was
a convenient alliance to have.
The king of the Iceni was Prasutagus, who agreed with the Romans to be one of the Client
Kings. He lived well, although on his deathbed he wrote a will, giving his property in part to the
Roman Emperor and the rest to his wife: Boudicca. The reason of giving property to the
Romans were merely political. As we remember, Celts had no trouble having a woman as a
Leader, but the Romans were not so keen on that, thus the reason for his part of the will for
the Romans: to settle peace.
That was the idea.

The Roman governor in Britannia considered a proof of witness the fact that Prasutagus
gave properties to the Empire as him having rights over the Iceni, so he tried to enslave the
tribe. Boudicca protested, being flogged for that and having their two daughters raped.
Boudicca then decided to fight the Romans. She and the Iceni allied the Trinovantes and led by
Bouddica marched on the Romans. It was the year 61 AD that the Bouddicas Rebellion began.

She destroyed settlements throughout Londinium.

The governor Paulinus marched to Londinium, now conquered by Bouddica, took her as
prisoner as well as the daughters, and decided to have them killed. Bouddica poisoned herself
before that, becoming a national Hero later on and a symbol for Feminism.

Celtic areas:

Scottish Highlands (Picts and Caledonians -as named by the Romans-)

Ireland
Wales
Cornwall

Roman area:

Southern England

Inhabitants: Britons and Romans.

In 122-127 AD, Romans started to build a wall to separate the Roman province and the
Celtic territories: Hadrian's Wall.
 Romans kept on going up North and invading; they built up a second Wall: Antonine's
Wall (142 AD). However, Caledonians continually fought against the Romans and, finally,
forced them to return to Hadrian's Wall.

In the early 4th century, Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity, thus declaring
the religion official throughout the Empire.

In 367 AD, the Britons suffered attacks from the Picts and Scots.
In 410 AD, the Roman army abandoned Britain to defend the Empire in the continent from
other assailants.
In 450 AD, Vortigern, a British King, asked the Saxons for help. The leaders of the Saxons were
two warrior brothers: Hengist and Horsa. In exchange for their help, the territory of Kent was
to be given to them and, as proof of good will, Vortigern married Hengist's daughter.

The Saxons

Saxon is the name given to Saxon, Angle and Jute tribes in North Germany and South
Scandinavia, which progressively invaded Britain and in which, in some time between 490 and
503 AD, the Battle of Mount Badon took place. An army, led by Ambrosius Aurelianus, the
historical reference for the legendary King Arthur, fought against the Saxons and found victory.
In the end, however, Saxons would take over and rule.

In the early 7th century, Saxon Britain was divided in seven kingdoms or a Heptarchy:

Three superpowers, divided between Northumbria, East Anglia and Mercia.

Four lesser kingdoms: Essex, Wessex, Sussex and Kent.

Political and social organization in Saxon society

Saxons lived in huts in rural commitees. Just like the Celts, their society was a martial one.
Their leader, a lord, was that which proved to be the strongest warrior.

The Comitatus, a group of thegns [thanes], (noble, aristocratic, martial men) surrounded
the Lord.

In the hut of the Lord there was the Hall, a room where the Comitatus met. It's also
connected with ideas of friendship, happiness, celebration and division of the spoils of war.

They had a hereditary monarchy but kept the concept of Lord as the strongest warrior.
That's why not always the son of the former, defunct King was to become the next Leader.
Different kingdoms fought against each other in order to obtain hegemony, their concept of
supremacy. Whoever would achieve it, would become the Overking of the conquered.
Saxons imposed their own culture, vanishing the hitherto Christian presence from Britain.

The Arrival of Christianity

Many stories are told about the arrival of Christianity in England, one being of Pope
Gregorys alleged comment on seeing English slaves in Rome: Non Angli sed angeli.

In 432 AD, St. Patrick, a liberated slave that later converted to Christianism, returned to
Ireland to spread the faith to his former captors. Ireland rapidly became Christian and the Irish
vigorous missionaries abroad, reinforcing Christianity in Wales and Scotland, which had
survived in shattered communities. St. Columba, one of his disciples, and the most famous
missionary to Scotland, converted the whole of the country, growing a great religious center
up on the island of Iona.

In 497 AD, St. Augustine came to England. He arrived and started his Conversion in Kent
since it was the closest point to the continent and because the Frankish queen of Kent was
already Christian. From then on, Canterbury was to become the main Christian headquarters
since he couldnt enter London. The Saxon kings supported Augustine, receptive to the idea
that Christianity would bolster their authority and produce a supply of educated
administrators and advisers.

The Celtic Church, now established in the North of Ireland was in some ways different
from the Romans. Easter, for example, was celebrated at a different time, and monasticism
took a different and more austere approach. The differences were wide enough to cause a
split between the northern and southern Churches.
In 663 AD the Synod of Whitby took place, a meeting between Roman and Celtic Churches to
decide whether to maintain one or the other model, for following different calendars was
causing troubles. The Roman Church model was implemented to be in concordance with that
of the continent, although Celtic Christianity persisted in Scotland, Wales and Ireland.

Anglo-Saxon Englands most famous writer, the monk Bede, lived most of his life in
Northumbria. He wrote his Ecclesiastical History of the English People, which gives us an
invaluable outline of English history from the end of Roman rule in Britain. Nearby, the
monastery of Lindisfarne is famous for its copies of the scriptures, wonderfully enriched by
paintings. We also conserve one of the masterpieces of the Irish Celtic Church, The Book of
Kells.

Christianity inspired great works of art. Northumbria had a Golden Age in the 7th Century,
when the great monasteries produced copies of the scriptures, enriched by paintings. The
monks were influenced by the craftsmanship of the Celtic Ireland as well as by current trends
in the Continent.

In the 8th Century, to the litanies of the monks was added: A furore Normanorum, libera
nos, Domine! Known as Norsemen, Viking or Danes, these invaders were a heathen people
from present-day Norway, Sweden and Denmark, highly skilled fighters and sailors. A great
shock to Britain, and indeed to Christendom, was the destruction in 793 of the great
monastery of Lindisfarne and the murder of the monks there.

The gradual disappearance of the Heptarchy

The 757-796 AD was the Mercian Supremacy period. King Offa of Mercia became the
Overking of the Kingdoms, except for Northumbria and East Wales, which remained
independent. King Offa was The First King of the English.

In the early 9th century, Wessex recovered their former power and in 802 AD, King Egbert
of Wessex became the next King of England.

Last class: arrival of Christianity. It almost disappeared on the arrival of the Saxons, since
they were pagans. Pope Gregory I sent the missions to England in the year 497 AD to
Christianize the country. Twas at the end of the 6th Century.

On the one hand, the Celtic Church (northern England) and the Roman Church (southern
England). Differences on the dates and celebrations (Holy Week, Easter).
Synod of Whitby. At the town of Whitby to set aside the differences and lean towards a single
model. The Roman model prevailed. The Celtic stopped being official, save from remote places
in Scotland, Wales

At the end of the 7th Century, all of the Seven Kingdoms were Christian. Then start the
struggles for power.

There were continuous fights over supremacy and the Overkingdom. We have Mercia
(South) and Northrumbria (North) as the two superpowers, with their common grounds in
dispute. Offa was the self-proclaimed King of the English, the first time in which arouses the
idea of a single kingdom to rule over them all, sought after his own supremacy. Obviously,
England was nowhere near to be unified, but he intended to.

In the early 9th century, wed have a shift in said supremacy, in which will be exercised by
the King of Wessex, Egbert, who would rule over most of the Anglo-Saxon England, starting
what would be a lineage of Egberts heirs and other members of his family line and house. The
first royal house of what would be a unified England. Mercia was continuously losing power.

http://www.englishmonarchs.co.uk (genealogical trees)

The Vikings

Germanic tribes living in present-day Scandinavia (Northway, Denmark, Sweden). Their

name Vikings were not that of a tribe, but a synonym of pirate. The term is often translated
from Latin.
These profusion of attacks happened on the 8th and 9th century, arriving between 793-795 to
the coast of Lindisfarne, Jarrow (home of Bede, Saxon monk) and Iona by the hands of the
Danes, ravaging manuscripts, paintings and monasteries abroad (people included of course).

The attacks prevailed during the 9th (865) century by different Viking tribes to the whole
of the British Isles. From Norway to Scotland, Western Island, the Isle of Man and Ireland.
From Denmark (Danes) to Northrumbria and East Anglia.

Vikings werent Christians, but heathens, pagans.

At the time, the ruler was Ethelbert, later succeeded by Ethelred. By the year 878 they
had occupied said territories (East Anglia, Ireland, Scotland). Current king being Alfred the
Great.
Alfred fought and defeated the Vikings, repelling further attacks. They signed a treaty of peace,
the Peace of Edington between the Vikings and the Kingdom of Wessex, pertaining Alfred of
Wessex and Guthrum. Alfred allowed the Vikings to remain within established terms at the
East and North so far as theyd leave Wessex in peace. England was partitioned between
Wessex and the Danelaw, the Viking territory.

There, we had again a pagan area at the times of war. Alfred asked Guthrum to convert to
Christianism for Alfred to trust him to carry on to the terms. Guthrum accepted, was baptized
and converted by Alfred himself. The Viking population of the Danelaw converted, allowing
marriage between men and women of both territories.
This was also the seed of what would later be England and the English as we currently know it,
with Viking linguistic burrowing.
The final unification of England happened in the 10th Century.
Alfred was Overking of the Danelaw.

Aside from these political and military events, Alfred was known for his interest in culture
and its preservation, since most of the manuscripts and so many works of art were destroyed
by the Viking raids.
He began a policy for cultural preservation and he himself learned Latin and translated texts
from Latin into their own language. He was surrounded by a group of scholars: the Scholarly
Circle.
The books were mainly of Roman authors but also from Anglo-Saxon Englands own like Bedes
Book.

Because of this interest in culture and Latin, he started the first historical record of Anglo-
Saxon England: the Anglo-Saxon Chronical, keeping in record what theyd consider the most
important events worthy of preservation. They had several versions of it, depending on where
it was written.
Beowulf was also copied in the 10th Century from oral culture with the appropriate Christian
patterns.

After Alfred, his descendants continued fighting the Vikings in an effort to retake the
territories of the Danelaw (part of Northumbria and East Anglia) from then.
Edgar the Peaceful became King of a unified England, the first. He succeeded on retaking the
territories.

Edgar the Peaceful (959-975) was the real first King of what we call England nowadays. He
employed propagandistic devices to bolster a sense of Nation, like the Church.

The Benedictine Reform was a monastic one paid by Edgar and his nobility to promote
him as the leader of the reform. This begun because of the concerns about the lack of
spirituality of some monks, who were living secular lives after the Viking raids.

In 970 AD, Regularis Concordia, a set of rules for all the English houses to follow.

The Witan is an institution formed by noblemen, abbots, bishops and men of influence in
the local government; they advised the King and ruled the country beside him.
 In 973, Edgar was crowned and anointed of a United England. The King was set above
the human judgment. From him onwards, Kings of England would also become Priests of the
Church.

Late Anglo-Saxon England

Ethelred II the Unready (978-1016) could not suppress Viking attacks and died in battle.
His second wife, Emma of Normandy, was a member of the Royal House. Edmund II succeeded
his father Ethelred in 1016 AD but died in battle as well.

Vikings won the war and King Cnut (Canute) (1016-1035) would become King of England,
the Viking Scotland, Denmark and Scandinavia and, as a devoted Christian, fully supported the
Church. He married Emma of Normandy, widow of Ethelred II. King Cnut divided England into
four earldoms, given to four men to govern them: Northrumbria, East Anglia, Mercia and
Wessex. Godwin, a Saxon, became the Earl of Wessex.

Harold I Harefoot (1037-1040) succeeded his father Cnut. He was fighting against
rebellious foes until 1037. King Harthacnut (Hardicanute) (1040-1043) succeeded his brother
Harold I.

King Edward the Confessor (1043-1066), son of Ethelred II and Emma of Normandy
succeeded King Harthacnut once he returned from Normandy where he was brought up.

Godwin, Earl of Wessex, who was the real ruler of England, had a lot of power by then and
was maintained as the right hand of King Edward, although there were several conflicts
between them. Finally, Godwin was exiled. Upon his return, King Edward married Godwins
sister, Edith.

In 1053, Godwin died. His son, Harold Godwinson, brother-in-law of King Edward (who
had no children), became Earl of Wessex and his right hand.

In 1055, Tostig, Godwinsons brother, became Earl of Northumbria. Ten years later, in
1065, the nobility of Northumbria rebelled against Tostig and exiled him.
Harold was not the only claimant to the throne of England. Duke William of Normandy, whose
father, Robert, had been brother of Emma, the wife of Ethelred and Cnut, also believed he
should succeed Edward. He reinforced his claims when, in 1064, Harold was shipwrecked off
the Norman coast. William took Harold prisoner and obliged him to swear an oath recognizing
William as Edwards rightful heir. Neither was the natural heir to Edward; rather, each man
believed that he should rule. Both of them ambitious and determined.

On January 5th 1066, King Edward died. Harold Godwinson was thus proclaimed King with
the approval of the Witan and passed to be Harold II. However, his reign wasnt peaceful or
quiet because of his struggles against Tostig and Duke William.

Harold Hardrada, King of Norway, descendent of King Cnut, claimed the English throne
with the support of Tostig. Tostig and Hardrada were friends with the king of the Scots. In
September 1066, Tostig and the Norwegian king landed in the north of England. King Harold
was in the south, awaiting Duke Williams invasion; he had to march rapidly north to meet the
Scandinavian invaders. Both armies met on September 25th in the Battle of Stamford Bridge in
Yorkshire. Harold defeated and killed Tostig and Harold Hardrada. Though the Vikings
continued to be a presence in Scottish and Irish life for another 200 years, they never menaced
England again and their plan to revive Cnuts great empire was abandoned.

Meanwhile, on September 28th, Duke William of Normandy landed at Pevensey Bay on

the Sussex coast with an army of about 8000 men. Though the Normans were descendants of
Vikings settlers in northern France, they fought quite differently, the basis of their army being
the knight, who fought on horseback, both covered in chain-mail. Harolds men were foot
soldiers with axes and spears.

Harold marched quickly south to confront William. Though he had an army roughly the
same size as Williams, he could have commanded a bigger force had he travelled more slowly.
Harolds army was weary after fighting and marching, but its morale was high after its victory
over Tostig.

Both armies met on October 14th 1066 in the Battle of Hastings. William and the Normans
won. Harold died on the battlefield after an arrow hit him in the eye. Then, marched north and
took London. He was crowned King of England at Westminster Abbey by the Archbishop of
York on December 25th 1066.

William the Conqueror was the first Norman to ever be King of England. The north, always
distant and turbulent, accepted his rule and then, in 1069, revolted against him. Between 1069
and 1070 William set out to destroy most fertile and populous areas of Yorkshire, this part of
the country lay wasted and empty for years afterwards.
 In 1071 William finally put down the last serious rebellion that came from the fen district
of East Anglia. The leader was Hereward the Wake, whom later Englishmen were to class with
Arthur and Alfred as an English hero.

Hastings is rightly regarded as a turning point in English history. The native English
aristocracy was replaced by a French one. Language separated the new rulers from their
subjects. Clearly defined classes appeared in English society: at the top was the king,
surrounded by great nobles or barons, who looked upon the king as near-equal. After then,
lesser lords, who lived in manors or castles in villages and to whom the ordinary people or
peasants owed their services. The peasantry was Saxon (i.e. English). The people couldnt
move without the lords permission. This was known as the feudal system, although this
wasnt unknown by the Saxons, but simply brought England in line with the rest of the
Western Europe.

William had fought with the papal blessing in Hastings. In the 11th century, Hilderbrand
became Pope Gregory VII and his reforms helped to establish the authority of the medieval
Church, particularly in England. William had secured the papal favor by introducing French and
Italian clergy in high places and he named the Italian man Lanfranc new archbishop of
Canterbury.

One of the great historical records of the Middle Ages in Britain is the Bayeux Tapestry
(France). It depicts Williams invasion of England from a Norman point of view and gives us so
much information regarding Norman Britain.

The Normans needed to maintain a large standing army in England between 4000 and
7000 knights. A lord would supply his overlord or baron with a fixed number of knights and the
baron, in turn, would supply a quota to the king, so that, in times of crises, he could raise an
army. This would also raise a warrior aristocracy which could, with its armed knights, cause
trouble for weak-positioned kings. England, like Western Europe, was to experience for
centuries the problems associated with an armed nobility, or baronage, which disturbed the
peace of the country. The barons on the borders of Scotland and Wales were independent as,
in return for their guarding of the English frontiers against the Scots and Welsh, they were
granted privileges by their monarchs. The authority was upheld by the sheriff.

Primus inter pares, or first among equals was a title conceded to those who would
amass vast amounts of power and possessions, even to those nobles who would achieve a
greater status than even that of a king due to his lands or political situation.
 Around the king was the royal curia, or court, made of advisers and officials. In 1086 the
kings officials compiled a book called the Domesday Book, recording Englands population
and wealth. It was used by William and his successors for taxation purposes and its become a
very useful resource to historians, as it presents a description of Norman England, village by
village.

In 1087 William died in Rouen in Normandy. He had ruled both Normandy and England.
This control of land in both France and England was to establish a pattern until the sixteenth
century. It created great problems, as kings of England were obliged to divide their attention
between their widely scattered and diverse possessions. Kings of France became increasingly
annoyed by the fact that English monarchs had their say and land in France which, they
believed, should belong to the French monarchy. As a consequence, wars between England
and France became a common feature throughout history from this time on.

Medieval England

William had three sons. Robert III, the eldest, became Duke of Normandy. William, the
second son, became King of England in 1087. He was known as William Rufus due to his red
hair.
Relations between brothers were bad; thus, it was no surprise that William II waged war
against his brother Robert III, pursuing his duchy, as he believed he should rule all over his
fathers possessions. From 1089 the war carried on up until 1096 when Robert subjugated in
exchange for funding for his going to the Holy Crusades.

There was little remorse when King William died by a stray arrow in a hunting accident in
1100. His brother, Henry, succeeded him. Henry had trouble with his brother Robert after the
latters return from the Crusades. The two brothers met in battle at Tinchebrai in 1106, to the
defeat of Robert, who was beaten and condemned to perpetual imprisonment in England until
his death in 1134.

Since Englishmen fought for Henry, he arose as master of both England and Norman
kings.
Henry enforced the law with the help of judges, who held court in the main towns they came
to. This circuit system is still operative today, just like the Exchequer to supervise monetary
and fiscal matter, making of England the most centrally organized government in Europe.
 Pope Gregory VII, along with other members of the Church, enforced the vow of poverty
to purify the moral and spiritual life of the clergy during his Gregorian Reform.
St. Anselm, archbishop of Canterbury, complained about the spiritual power of the King.

The lay investiture was a ceremony in which a new abbot or bishop received the ring and
staff of office from a secular prince who had him appointed. The Gregorians considered the
King a layman, and as such, inferior to all other priests. The Church could no longer tolerate
the notion that anointed Kings were to be sacred deputies of God.

Henry I died in 1135. He had one son William, who drowned in the winter of 1120, on his
way from Norway to England, putting the succession of the crown in dispute. He also had a
daughter, Matilda, who was pushed aside by his nephew Stephen, son of Adela, the daughter
of William the Conqueror.
Being out of the country at the time of Henrys death, Stephens brother, Henry (dear God),
bishop of Winchester, rallied Church opinion to the cause of Stephen, who ruled from 1135-54
but opposed by Matilda, who wanted the throne (wait for it) for herself, but also (here it
comes) for her son, HENRY.
Civil war ensued until 1153, when it was agreed by the Treaty of Winchester that Stephen
would rule until his death, taking counsel from Prince Henry, who would become King.

Henry II was Duke of Normandy in 1150, Count of Anjou, Touraine and Maine through his
mother in 1151; Duke of Aquitaine in 1153 through his marriage with Eleanor and, finally, King
of England in 1154.

Eleanor of Aquitaine, daughter of Guillaume X of Aquitaine, first married the King of

France to later divorce him and marry the future King Henry II. Her grandfather (you wouldnt
believe it), Guillaume IX was the first troubadour known.
She, along with the members of the court of Aquitaine she brought with her, are responsible
for the introduction of the Courtly Love poetry. Its a conventional form of poetry that uses
formulas to praise the lady, who is usually married. In the poem, the Lady takes the role of the
Lord, whereas the lover is merely a vassal in feudal standards.

Henry IIs relationship with the Church were weary. In 1162, he appointed his friend, the
Chancellor Thomas Becket, who wasnt a member of nobility but a servant in the Normal Royal
House, Archbishop of Canterbury. He thought hed have a peaceful relationship with the
Church this way, however, Becket put his loyalty to the Church before that to Henry. Becket
condemned Henrys actions against the Church, and in 1164 Becket was exiled.
In 1164 the Constitutions of Clarendon were passed by Henry, in an attempt to exert state
control over the many privileges of the Church, which Henry wished to restrict.
In 1170 Becket returned and, again, opposed the King, condemning the archbishop of York and
six other bishops who had, in his absence, crowned Prince Henry, the heir apparent.
The bishops and the archbishop told the King of Beckets actions. Henry, furious, send knights
to assassinate Becket, who was standing at the high altar in Canterburys Cathedral.

His murder shook the whole of Christendom. Henry was forced to penance in public. In
1172 the feud was settled at Avranches. The Church would invest the bishops, but the king
would be consulted on the choice of candidates. Both Kings and Church worked together until
the Reformation in the 1530s.

In 1171, Henry assumed the lordship of Ireland. War with France continued, as well has
Henrys fight against his four sons, Henry (not even mad), Richard, Geoffrey and John.

Henry II was the first King of the House Plantagenet and from him onwards, Kings of
England would rule over Ireland as well.
His son, Prince Henry, died in 1183, and when Henry II died six years later in 1189 he was
succeeded by his second son, Richard.

Richard I the Lionheart was a great soldier. Just as he became king he set off for the Holy
Land, modern Middle East, to join the third Crusade against the Moslems, entrusting the
government of England to William Longchamp, bishop of Ely. Prince John, Richards brother,
was given six counties in England, virtually separating kingdom within England.
John, deeply jealous of his brother and Longchamps power, thus he plotted with the French
king Phillip Augustus against King Richard.

Philip cheated and accused Richard of having arrangements with the Moslems, maybe
tipping the scales towards Christian defeat.

In 1192, Richard was shipwrecked in the Adriatic on his way back from the Holy Land,
becoming a prisoner of the duke of Austria. John declared Richard dead and crowned himself.
The news of Richards survival spread, however, and John fled in panic to France. Richards
captors demanded a ransom of 150,000 marks for the kings freedom. The English paid, proud
as they were of their great and brave king, and being cause for dishonor to let a crusader to die
in prison. Richard arrived back in England in February 1194. The rest of his reign was spent
abroad, principally in defending his possessions in France as well as fighting Philip for the
territories in France. He pardoned his brother, however, and allowed him to keep and rule the
counties he was hitherto given.

He was killed in this struggle in 1199.

Magna Carta and Parliament, 1199-1272

John I succeeded his Brother Richard in 1199. History branded him as a tyrant and an
enemy of the Church, although modern opinion favors him a bit more. He was ill-tempered,
vicious and jealous, but brave, energetic and resourceful at times typical Plantagenet family.

John faced three problems: power of the English nobility was escalating; the possessions
of their kings in France was becoming harder to defend by day, and the Church was no less
eager to gather as much power as possible. Thus Innocent III had one of the strongest and
more militant papacies in history.

Geoffrey, Johns elder brother, had died in 1186. He had left a son, Arthur, prince of
Brittany. Philip Augustus, the French king, supported Arthur against John. Philip then invaded
Norman in 1202 and John was obliged to defend his French possessions.
He had Arthur captured in 1203 and probably murdered. War was still waged on against Philip,
and in 1204 the English lost Normandy.

In 1206 Pope Innocent III rejected Johns candidate for the vacant see of Canterbury and
instead chose his own, Stephen Langton. John rejected Innocents choice as well and, in
retaliation, the pope placed England under interdict from 1206 until 1212 (church ceremonies
were suspended). John was excommunicated in 1209. Philip Augustus and the pope formed an
alliance, obliging John to give in to the papacy by 1215. John, however, staging a kind of a
diplomatic coup, offered England to the pope as a fief (i.e. John became vassal to the pope).
Innocent was delighted and became Johns firm friend. His alliance with Philip Augustus
immediately ceased, although Johns campaign in France in 1214 ended in utter defeat at the
Battle of Bouvines.

Meanwhile, the English nobility had grown tired of Johns demands during the war the
taxes, mind you. The Church hadnt been happier, either, since his war against the papacy and
then at the kings surrender, for after Johns concordat with Innocent the English Church was
flooded with appointees of the pope.
Thus in 1215, the aristocracy, the Church and the merchants colluded against the king. At
Runnymede, they forced him to agree to the terms of Magna Carta, the Great Charter, and the
Third Redundant Synonym. 1215 is one of the most important dates in English history: it rivals
1066 in fame.

Magna Carta was a document which laid down rules for a feudal king to follow. It listed
the abuses the king had committed and the how to rectify his wrongdoing. It also meant an
increased importance of the barons (the feudal aristocracy) and the need for the king to work
with them in order for the government and the country to succeed. From 1215 until the
accession of the Tudors in 1485 the feudal aristocracy became one of the mainsprings of
national life.

John had no intention of agreeing to Magna Carta without a fight. His war with the barons
continued, and some of them invited Philip Augustus of France to England to be their liege and
lord.
When John died in battle in 1216, England was drowned in war, and his death only did so much
to abate the warfare. Johns son, Henry, was only nine and not implicated in the misdeeds of
his father. The French, also, being the enemy of tradition, harmed the baronial cause with their
presence in England. Further, the Church strongly supported Henry. By 1217 Henry IIIs
guardians and regents triumphed, forcing the French to withdraw. Magna Carta was reissued
and regents were appointed. Henry was under the regents dominance until 1234, when he
was crowned. From 1234 until 1258 Henry III ruled on his own, without further dependency or
counselling, surrounded by flatterers rather than advisors. The barons took offense at their
exclusion from membership of the royal councils.

Henry married Eleanor of Provence in 1236. Many of her relatives came to England and
held high office. The kings young sister, another Eleanor (oh boy), married a Frenchman,
Simon de Montfort. The favoritism towards foreigners angered the English nobility. In 1252
Henry withdrew Simon from Gascony for misgovernment, as charged by the Gascons, and
Henry upheld said charges, making of Simon an enemy and a leader for the baronial cause
and a foreign one and that.

Since his childhood Henry had depended on papal advisers, and so in 1254 he accepted
the crown of Sicily from the pope; for him, an English king, to defend his claim to a distant
country required vast amounts of money, thus he raised enormous sums through the Church.
There were bad harvests in the three years that followed 1255 and hence the taxes in such
moments of economic hardship rose bitter resentment in the country.
 At Easter 1258 a group of barons rebelled. Henry was obliged to abandon the Sicilian
crown and to consent to the Provisions of Oxford, proposals to remedy the abuses of Henrys
government:

- A panel of four knights was set up in each county to supervise local government.
- The kings chief official, the sheriff, was to be appointed for only one year at a time.
- At the royal court, traditional offices were to be restored; their positions clearly
defined.
- A council of fifteen people was appointed to direct the government of the country. It
became increasingly difficult to rule through this council and the panels in the
counties.

The pope condemned the barons and gentry and supported Henry. St. Louis, king of
France did so as well. And of course, there was war. Henry and his son, Prince Edward,
commanded the royalist forces and Simon de Montfort led the barons. In 1264 the king and
Edward were badly defeated by Simon at Lewes and were taken prisoner by the barons so
much for papal and French support. Simon was effectively ruler of England. To help him with
the government, he asked knights and burgesses to his parliaments and for support from the
middle classes and the clergy. The barons disliked the great power Simon wielded, and was
defeated and killed at the battle of Evesham in 1265.

Henrys energies were devoted to directing the rebuilding of Westminster Abbey, where
he was buried when he died in 1272. The 13th century saw not only the emergence of
parliaments but also the establishment of universities at Oxford and Cambridge, independent
institutions in practice.

Late Medieval England

Edward I (reigned 1272-1307) was principally engaged by his Welsh and Scottish
campaigns, although he also had to mount a series of defensive operations in France to
safeguard English possessions from French attacks.

His son, Edward II, who ruled from 1307 until 1327, hadnt much interest in war. He
deprived the barons of their privileges and positions in the court in favor of his friends, and
hence ran into severe difficulties with the barons. He befriended in particular a young
Frenchman, Piers Gaveston. The barons rose against Edward in 1311 and beheaded Gaveston.
The Battle of Bannockburn in 1314, which ensured and independent Scottish kingdom,
brought Edward to his final disgrace.
In 1327 the queen mother, Isabella, with the Earl Mortimer, gained custody of the heir
apparent, Prince Edward, and then took over the government from Edward II. The king was
imprisoned and brutally murdered.

The rule by the queen mother and Mortimer came to an end in 1130 when Edward III
took over the government of the country. Like his grandfather, he was a great and popular
soldier. He waged war against France and in 1337 he refused any longer to pay homage to
Philip and claimed the throne of France through his mother. Thus began the Hundred Years
War.
Salic Law in France was disputed. An attempt to create a culture that would separate from the
French was made: Alliterative Revival. French was no longer an official language or spoken,
for the matter.

In 1348-50 the plague, also known as Black Death, swept over the country, killing about
one-third of the population. Feudalism was already breaking down before the arrival of the
Plague, making the matters worse, such a severe shortage of labor that fell on the shoulders of
the remaining population. It wasnt possible to keep peasants on one estate when a
neighboring lord offered employment at higher wages.
The feudal system which obliged laborers to stay in the villages where they were born was
upheld by the Statute of Labourers in 1351. Its enforcement was sporadic but harsh, and thus
it was detested by the peasantry, which also suffered from heavy, terrible taxes, imposed to
pay for the costs of the war and an increasingly expensive administration.

The most significant point to emerge from the first phase of the Hundred Years War was
that the French army could not beat the English, but the English, at the same time, however,
could never conquer France. It was a stalemate. And a ludicrous, costly one at that.
In 1376 the Black Prince died. In 1377 Edward III was succeeded by his young grandson,
Richard II, son of the Black Prince. Because of his young age of ten, the power was exercised by
a regency council headed by the Black Princes younger brother, the powerful John of Gaunt,
duke of Lancaster; a perilous period for a strong government.

These grievances of the peasantry came to a head in 1381 ironically, it ended with
beheadings. Led by Wat Tyler, angry peasants marched to London where they beheaded
Simon Sudbury, the archbishop of Canterbury and Chancellor, and Sir Robert Hales, the
Treasurer. At Smithfield the young King Richard II met the rebel leaders. Their demands were:

- Repeal of oppressive statutes.

 - The abolition of villeinage (serfdom).
- The division of Church property.

On the thought that Wat Tyler was going to kill the king, the mayor of London struck Tyler
down and killed him. Richard II took charge of the situation, riding forward and putting himself
at the head of the rebels. The crowds dispersed quietly. Richard had no intention of giving way
to rebel demands, and punished any and all who had rebelled.

In 1381-1382, the monarchy and aristocracy undertook a campaign against the followers
of a religious reformer, John Wyclif. He wished to cleanse the Church of corruption and to
reform it. They were known as the Lollards. They bore hostility towards ecclesiastical
authority, devotion to the Scriptures and belief in an English Bible. In the belief that they
resembled an emerging revolution, they were persecuted by both Church and state.

Lancaster and York The War of the Roses

Richard II tried to build a party round himself. The great nobility, led by the earls of
Gloucester, Arundel and Warwick, disliked the royal policy of being excluded of influence and
they struck against the kings party in 1386. Robert de Vere, the earl of Oxford and Richards
favorite, was defeated in battle in 1387, forcing the king to flee abroad. Leaders of Richards
party were hanged, drawn and quartered. Richard himself only just escaped death.

In 1389 Richard declared himself of age, and in 1396, after the death of his first wife,
Anne of Bohemia, Richard married Isabelle, the daughter of Charles VII of France and hence
made peace with France, reducing his expenditure in an effort to make himself independent of
Parliament and nobility.

In 1397 Richard struck at his enemies. He had Gloucester and Warwick exiled. In 1398, he
also exiled Henry Bolingbroke, his cousin, the son of John of Gaunt. In February 1399, on the
death of John of Gaunt, Richard disinherited his cousin and seized his estates.
That year, in July, Henry of Lancaster came back to England, defeated and captured Richard.
Henry had himself declared king in 1399 and claimed back his inheritance. In 1400, Henry
ordered the murder of Richard, who was held prisoner in the Tower of London. Richards
ruthless behavior began a bloody period in English history. After Henrys seizure of the crown,
the House of Lancaster, to which Henry IV belonged, wasnt allowed to rule in peace.
 The House of Lancaster sprang from John of Gaunt, son of Edward III, but Edward had
eleven children and the House of York, through the House of Mortimer, had a stronger claim
to the crown.
The battles between the Houses of Lancaster and York, which lasted from 1455 till 1485 are
known as the Wars of the Roses, in regards of the family emblems: Lancasters was a red rose,
and that of York was a white rose.
Henry IV ruled from 1399 to 1413, was a capable administrator and a fine soldier and was
succeeded as king by his son, Henry, who later became the famous Henry V.

In an attempt to seal the division in the ruling class, Henry had Richard IIs body brought
to London and reinterred in Westminster Abby. Partly to occupy the nobility and partly to
enlarge Englands French empire, Henry reopened war with France, Henry V reopened warfare
with France. In 1415 Henry crushed a superior French army at Agincourt. In 1420, by the
Treaty of Troyes, Henry was recognized as heir to Charles VI, the French king. Henry died
suddenly in 1422, though, two months before King Charles VI, and with him, his ambition to
rule both England and France.

Prince Henry was just nine months old when his father, Henry V, died, and in France
already ruled Charles VII, determined to expel the English presence. He had help from a
peasant woman, Joan of Arc, whom the French claimed to be a saint. Joan of Arc was burnt to
death by the English in 1431 but she brought just enough aid and luck to the French to finish
the English empire in France.

Henry VI was a gentle and pious man, but also weak physical and mentally. Hence Richard,
duke of York, emerged as a rival to henry VI. Being the great-grandson of Edward III, he had a
double claim to the throne. In 1458 there was a Yorkist revolt against Henry. Initially the
Yorkists were successful, but in 1460 the Lancastrians defeated them. The duke of York,
amongst other Yorkist leaders were executed, their heads displayed on the city walls of York.
Richard of Yorks son, Edward, became the new duke of York and leader of the Yorkist cause.

In 1461, Edward IV marched on London at the head of an army. Henry VI was put in the
Tower of London and Edward crowned himself king. Edward ruled, save with one interruption,
until 1483.
In 1470 the Lancastrians revolted against Edward IV and Henry was briefly reinstated as king.
The Lancastrians were later utterly defeated in battle, and Henry, a pathetic figure, was
murdered in 1471. Henrys only son, Prince Edward, was killed in battle Edward versus
Edward, easy to remember.
 Edward IV was succeeded by his twelve-year-old son, Edward V. Edward IVs brother,
Richard, duke of Gloucester, seized Edward V and his younger brother, Richard, and put them
in the Tower. The duke claimed that Edwards marriage had been unlawful and that the two
princes were bastards. The princes were murdered by the dukes men, though there are no
proof that prove Richards guilt in 1674 the skeletons of two children were discovered during
alterations in the Tower and were subsequently buried at Westminster Abbey.

Richards only son died in 1484. The heir to the throne was a Lancastrian, Henry Tudor,
earl of Richmond. Henry struck against Richard in 1485. At the Battle of Bosworth in
Leicestershire, Henry defeated and killed Richard III. The earl of Richmond became Henry VII.
The Wars of the Roses came to an end, and with it, a new dynasty was born: the Tudors.

Medieval Ireland

Both Ireland and Wales lacked unified government under one monarch, an advantage
enjoyed by England and, to a great extent, by Scotland.

Ireland was ruled by a number of kings, not one of whom had managed to establish
supremacy as the House of Wessex, and more definitely the Normans, had done in England. In
the 12th century there was a power struggle between Dermot MacMurrough, king of Leinster
and the king of Connacht.
Dermot sought outside help and gained the service of Norman lords from England, the most
prominent of which was Richard Strongbow, earl of Pembroke. Richard was successful and
drove Dermots enemies out of Leinster. He then married Dermots daughter, as promised by
the king, but claimed he should be king on Dermots death.

In 1171, Strongbow won a great victory over the king of Connacht, at which point brought
the intervention of Henry II to prevent Strongbow from becoming too powerful and
independent. Henry II let Strongbow, along other Norman lords keep their lands as vassals, as
well as key castles and ports.
Rory OConnor, King of Connacht was recognized as overlord of the rest of Ireland.
By the end of Henrys reign, part of Ireland Leinster, Munster and Meath was given to
Norman lords. The rest of Ireland was ruled by native Irish kings who acknowledged the power
(sometimes the authority) of the king of England.
The area in Ireland directly controlled by the King from Dublin, which fluctuated in size, came
to be called the Pale.
 Poynings Law of 1495 decreed that no Bill could be initiated in Ireland until it was
approved by the king and his council in London, hence preventing Ireland from enjoying any
growth in parliamentary power and initiative.

Medieval Wales

Wales had been penetrated by Norman lords at the time of the Conquest. The southern
coastal plain was under their control, as was a little of the northern coastal strip, but the poor
mountainous area in between, covering most of Wales, was ruled by native Celtic princes.
The kings of England were obliged to grant great powers to the marcher lords on the border
who protected England from Welsh raiders. Although the kings didnt welcome this authority,
they were satisfied with a recognition by the native princes of their sovereignty.

Llywelyn ap Gruffydd, Prince of Wales, who had loose authority over much of central and
north Wales, refused to homage to Edward I in 1275. When he seemed adamant in his decision
to not recognizing English overlordship, Edward declared war war never changes. Edward
marched into North Wales in 1277, supported by the English navy to resort to blockade the
Welsh coast. Llywelyn had no other choice but to surrender. He remained Prince of Wales but
lost much of his power.

Edward then began to build a series of spectacular castles in Wales for possible, future
expeditions. Llywelyn, unhappy by this, rose in revolt with his brother David. However,
Llywelyn was killed by an English soldier as he rode unattended through the countryside, and
with him, Welsh resistance collapsed. David was captured and executed. By the Statute of
Wales (1284) the whole of Wales was made subject to the English crown. Edwards son, Prince
Edward, born in 1284, was declared Prince of Wales in 1301.

Medieval Scotland

Scotland was a success in contrast to Ireland and Wales. Composed of several peoples
living in diverse landscapes, Scotland was unified under a single monarchy. England was rich
and powerful, but to overcome Scotlands size, geography and the resistance of its peoples
would require a far greater effort than even the most powerful king could muster.
The unification of Scotland is traditionally dated to 843. Kenneth MacAlpin, king of the Scots,
defeated the Picts and absorbed their territory to form the kingdom of Scotia that covered the
mountainous area north of the Forth.
 In about 1016 a descendant of MacAlpins, Malcolm II, defeated the Angles and brought
Lothian under Scottish rule. The Angles (the English in Lothian) were the northern inhabitants
of the old kingdom of Northumbria, and for many years, ambitious Scottish kings tried to
absorb the whole of Northrumbria, bringing friction between Scotland and England.

In 1018, Malcolms grandson, Duncan, while still heir to the Scottish throne, became king
of the British kingdom of Strathclyde by his claim through the female line. Strathclyde
stretched from Dumbarton (north of Glasgow) to Cumbria. The Scottish kings authority over
Strathclyde was weak and it didnt get much better over the years. The Vikings continued to
control the islands off the western and northern coasts of the Scottish mainland. Their
allegiance was to the king of Norway.

In the 11th century, recognizing English ways, rather than Celtic, tended to make for a
strong central monarchy, Malcolm III Ceann Mor Big-head moved the center of Scottish
national life to English Lothian and southern Scotia, away from Celtic Scotia to the north. He
welcomed English settlers fleeing from William the Conqueror. He married Margaret of the
old royal House of Wessex in about 1070 an event of paramount importance. Her energies
were devoted to bringing the Scottish Church into line with the rest of Western Europe and
shaking off Celtic ideas. She was revered as a saint.

Malcolm wasnt peaceful with England, and mounted five invasions in all. He was so brutal
in Northumbria that people there learned a Scottish king would treat them no better than the
Conqueror. William invaded Scotland in 1071 and forced Malcolm to pay him homage at
Abernethy (Perthshire). Malcolm III was killed during his last invasion in 1093, and Margaret
died of grief three days later. Malcolm and Margaret tried to establish English primogeniture,
by which the eldest son succeeded the father.

Malcolms brother, Donald Ban the Fair, took the throne and there was a strong reaction
against the influences of Malcolms reign, and a number of the English were expelled. The
fourth of Malcolms and Margarets sons, Edgar, secured the throne from Donalds with the
help of the English king, William Rufus. Edgar ruled from 1097 to 1107 and arranged
understandings with the King of Norway in 1098 to give them rule over Shetland. Edgar was
succeeded by his brother, Alexander I (reigned 1107-24) and strengthened ties with England by
his marriage to Sibylla, an illegitimate daughter of Henry I of England.

David Is reign (1124-53) brought more Anglo-Norman lords to settle in Scotland and help
to give the country a feudal structure like that of the rest of Europe. He also set a major reform
of the Church which was out of step with the European model, despite Queen Margarets
efforts. David also established the custom of primogeniture in the royal succession once and
for all. Davids son, Malcolm IV, succeeded to the throne at the age of eleven and was in no
position to resist Henry II on his efforts to redraw the border between the two countries, by
which England gained Northumbria. Malcolm died in 1165 and was succeeded by his brother,
William the Lion.
The new king resented the loss of Northumbria and concluded an alliance with France in 1174
to be known as the Auld Alliance. However, Henry II heavily defeated William and the Scots
and the Treaty of Falaise (1174) put Scotland under the authority of the English king. William
was able to revoke the Treaty in 1189 when the English monarch, Richard Coeur de Lion, eager
for funds for a crusade, agreed to renounce feudal superiority and hand back the castles
occupied in return for 10,000 marks.

There were reasonably good relations with England for the next century. Ties with the
English monarchy were strengthened. Alexander II (1214-49) married Henry IIIs sister, Joan,
and, though he introduced French influence into the Scottish court through his remarriage to a
French lady after Joans death in 1238, his young son, the future Alexander III (1249-86),
married Henry IIIs young daughter, Margaret. Harmony was helped by the English monarchys
preoccupation with constitutional and military problems with France in the 13th century.

In 1263 King Hakon of Norway led a great army and fleet to Scotland to make a point that
the islands lying off the north and west Scottish coasts were Viking territory. Storms and
Alexander IIIs forces wiped them out. The Treaty of Perth (1266) between Alexander III and
Hakons son, King Magnus, surrendered Viking control over Man and the Hebrides to the
Scottish king. This marked friendly relations between Scots and Vikings.

The Scottish War of Independence

The death of Alexander III in 1286 precipitated a political crisis which lead to a full-scale
war to preserve independence. He was succeeded by his granddaughter, Margaret The Maid
of Norway, the only child of Margaret of Scotland and King Eric II of Norway. She was only
three years old and sickly, and by the Treaty of Birgham in 1290, she married Edwards son.
Though resulting in a union of the crowns, Scotland was to remain a separate and independent
kingdom. The arrangement was off, for Margaret died on her way to Scotland from Norway.

A dispute broke out over the succession to the crown, and the strongest claimants were
John Balliol and Robert Bruce, both of which were evenly balanced. Edward I arbitrated in the
matter at Berwick in 1291 and 1292. Both claimants were obliged to homage the king, and
Edward was recognized as the superior lord of whomever was chosen to be king. Edward
chose Balliol and at once attempted to interfere in Scottish affairs to a much greater extent
than either Balliol or Bruce had agreed to.
King John nicknamed Toom Tabard or Empty Coat was in a difficult position: to refuse
Edwards claims would bring ensue certain retaliation, while compliance would reduce his
authority in the face of the Scottish. He finally decided to defy Edward and fight a war.

Edward I invaded Scotland in 1296 with utter success. The Scottish army was heavily
defeated at Dunbar and Balliol was taken prisoner. The Stone of Destiny, on which Scottish
kings were enthroned, was removed from Scone to Westminster Abbey.
In the midst of defeat a Scottish hero arose. William Wallace, a knight, rallied the Scots and, at
Stirling, on 10 September 1297, the Scottish forces inflicted a crushing defeat on the English.
Wallace became the guardian of the realm, although the Scots were defeated at Falkirk when,
in 1298, Edward invaded the country again. Unconvinced, Edward gathered a new army and
invaded again in May 1303. In 1304 Wallace was captured, taken to London, and executed. In
1305 Edward I imposed a new order of government on Scotland.

Regardless of Edwards settlement, Scottish feeling was hostile. Robert Bruce, grandson of
the contestant for the throne in 1290, claimed the crown in 1306 after murdering his rival.
Having lost the first battle against English forces, he fled the country. On his return, the English
king prepared to defeat him but died in Scotland in the summer of 1307 and, without Edwards
military genius and determination, England failed to maintain its hold on Scotland. By 1314
only Stirling Castle remained in English hands.

Edward II marched into Scotland in 1314 with an impressive army. At Bannockburn the
English were severely defeated, who couldnt penetrate the Scottish ranks and, on withdrawal,
became bogged down in the marshy meadows bordering the burn the stream. This is the
most famous battle in Scottish history, although war didnt end until 1328, when Scotland was
recognized as an independent kingdom and Robert was acknowledged as king.
 The Tudors

Henry VII came to the throne in 1485, after a period of weak monarchy and civil war. He
made the monarchy strong, brought stability to England and earned the respect of his
subjects.
Henry helped to establish his claim to the throne by marrying the Yorkist heiress, Elizabeth, in
1486, but the union of both the red rose of Lancaster and the white rose of York didnt prevent
Yorkist attempts to the throne and impersonations of Richard of York who was dead that
resulted in failed rebellions and executions of leading Yorkists undertaken by both Henry VII
and Henry VIII to ensure the succession of the Tudor family.

Henry VII finished what remained of feudalism and established a new model based on
merits rather than birth, as he appointed men outside of the nobility to important positions in
political affairs. By creating a nobility of mind and merit, a change deemed progressive then,
he started what would be the modern state. The king also provided himself with a national
army, and restored the royal prerogatives. In Henry VII and Elizabeths reign the nobility was
severely weakened and dependent on the kings mercy for misdeeds they had committed, for,
at best, Henry could force them to pay heavy fines or enforce the Statute of Livery and
Maintenance by which the nobility were forbidden to keep private armies.

Henry VIIs dynasty was sufficiently respected in Europe for his eldest son, Arthur, to
marry the Spanish princess, Katharine of Aragon. When Arthur died in 1502, Katharines family
was keen that she should remarry the younger son, the future Henry VIII. Henry VIIs daughter,
Margaret, married King James IV of Scotland to secure good relations between England and
Scotland. Henry Tudors peaceful government earned his family the general approval and
loyalty of the English people.

Henry VIII (1509-1547) was eighteen when he succeeded his father in 1509. Handsome,
accomplished, extravagant, in marked contrast to his father. His first move away from Henry
VIIs policies was the revival of wars with France in order to reclaim the old English territories
in the country a task that wouldnt deliver. He invaded and won the Battle of the Spurs; his
commander defeated the Scots, allies of France, and James IV, king of Scotland and Henry VIIIs
brother-in-law, was killed in the Battle of Flodden oh boy, here we go.

Henry was bored with the routine of government and left the affairs of state to his
Chancellor, Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, who had quickly risen through the hierarchy of the
Church to ultimately legate a Latere (a permanent representation of the pope in England), a
position that gave him utter control of the English Church. Wolseys supremacy over the
Church left it weaker and vulnerable to the attack it would face, for Wolsey did not give it
either reform or uniformity, and his personal affairs were a vivid example of the corruption rife
in the Church. However, he was unable to find a solution to the crisis of the reign, when in
1525 the king decided to divorce his queen, Katharine of Aragon and to send Wolsey to ask the
Pope for his approval to the divorce.

The queen was forty and had only once child, Princess Mary, born in 1516. Henry
considered it essential to have a son to succeed him, fearing that a female succession would
bring civil war, and he hoped to marry Anne Boleyn. Henry didnt think why would he that
the divorce would present serious problems, as the Church had consented to the separation of
royal couples in the past and his relations with the Church were good. Difficulties soon arose,
for Katharine was opposed to the divorce and was supported by her family, the Habsburgs, the
most powerful royal house in Europe, controlling both the Empire and Spain. Henry tried to
persuade the European opinion to his side by claiming unlawfulness on his marriage, as he
married the widow of his defunct brother; Katharine, however, claimed their marriage was
never consummated. Henrys case was far from convincing, and public sympathy in England
was on Katharines side.

Henrys hopes for divorce vanished in 1527, when Rome was captured by the armies of
the Habsburg emperor, Charles V, nephew of Katharines. The pope became a virtual prisoner
of Charles, who would never agree to the divorce. Wolsey had failed to please his king, and
was thusly stripped of all but one of his offices of state and sent to a parish in the North of
England. He was charged with treason in 1529 and, had he not died on his way to London,
Wolsey would have faced almost certain execution. This was, again, proof of the immensity of
royal power, as much as lack of loyalty and mercy to his servants. Thomas More was
appointed Chancellor in 1530.

The Anglican Church and the Reformation

The reformation of the Church was intended to be political and not religious. Henry was a
Catholic; in 1521 he earned the title of Fidei Defensor (Defender of the Faith) from the pope
for his denunciation of the German Protestant reformer, Martin Luther. In a process of six-to-
seven years, Henry VIII devised Anglicanism, hence Catholicism was no longer the official
religion in England.
 Henrys diplomatic efforts to secure a divorce failed, and turned to a policy of force
against the Church which ended in a complete break with Rome. The task of carrying out the
Reformation in England was accomplished by Thomas Cromwell, the most powerful of the
ministers along the Privy Council, who were the closest advisors of the King and origin of the
Cabinet from 1531 until his execution in 1540. He arranged for Parliament which sat from
1529 to 1536, called the Reformation Parliament to pass statutes which swept away the
power of the papacy in England and vested it in the crown instead; he would also promote
Anglicanism this way. Then nationalized the monastic lands lands that were later sold to the
Bourgeoisie, the middle classes and created a bureaucracy that managed the revenues at
monarchys disposal. Cromwells actions resulted in a great strengthening of the House of
Commons which, aside the House of the Lords, composed the Parliament which was asked
to endorse one of the greatest religious changes in English national life and a new succession
to the crown.

In 1532 the archbishop of Canterbury died and was replaced by Thomas Cranmer, a man
of great learning who aimed at Church reform and was devoted to the king. He married, in
January 1533, Henry and Anne Boleyn, and in May he pronounced his marriage to Katharine
null. On 1 June, Cranmer crowned Anne queen of England, but Henry was bitterly disappointed
at the birth, in September 1533 of Princess Elizabeth, which would lead Henry to a romantic
affair with Jane Seymour. He would later imprison Thomas Wyatt, ambassador and poet,
accused of treason for an alleged affair with Anne Boleyn. Wyatt died from illness not long
after, and Anne Boleyn was beheaded, accused of treason.

Since 1532, Parliament and the king prevented revenue from the Church in England to
Rome. In 1534, the popes right to tax the English Church was abolished and Henry was
declared to be the supreme head of the Anglican Church in England by the Act of Supremacy.
In the same year, an Act of Succession vested the succession in Annes heir, Elizabeth. In 1536,
a second Act of Succession allowed henry to name his own heir. The great Catholic powers,
the empire and France preferred Henrys friendship to his hostility.

Between 1536 and 1539, Henry mounted an attack on the monasteries, as they owned
vast wealth. Cromwell had a scheme to use the monastic lands a source of income on which to
the monarchy would live forever, but Henry needed a quicker source of money. Thus the land
went both to old landowners and men with money, who had an interest in maintaining the
Reformation settlement.
 The reputation of the Church was at a low ebb, and all agreed a reform was needed.
However, the hierarchy was dominated by a brutal ruler who enjoyed devoted loyalty even
from people offended by his policies. This was illustrated in 1536 when the most serious
rebellion of the kings reign, the Pilgrimage of Grace which demanded a return to the Church
of Rome and was supported in the North of England failed because its leaders believed the
king when he promised to reverse his religious policies. He didnt keep his promise. Cromwell
brought the north under almost direct central control. Wales was incorporated into the English
state when, in 1536 and 1543, it was divided into shires counties just as England was,
hence Henry changed his title for that of King of Ireland.

In 1539, Henry had the Six Acts passed, which demanded complete conformity to Catholic
doctrine and practice. Those who refused to obey were to be punished savagely. But few could
have expected such conservative religious practices to continue after a successful attack on
the traditional organization of the Church this certainly did not happen.

Henry was cruel and egotistical. For reasons of state, in 1535 he executed Thomas More,
leading humanist scholar of the day and, later, saint of the Roman Catholic Church although
he did object to the religious changes. Henry underwent six Christian marriages in pursuit of
happiness and a son to succeed him. He disposed of his two great ministers, Wolsey and
Cromwell, without a flinch. Yet his authority was supreme, even without permanent army or
local bureaucracy. He struck at the Roman Church when it was weak and without friends, and
his national Church provoked a favorable response from a nationalistic people. It was, from
1534, the Church of England. However, he would follow on his fathers system of Nobility of
Mind and Merit. Thus, courtiers were to be good politicians, warriors, entertainers and
cultivated in order to impress the king, who was personally involved in culture. It seems that
he himself wrote some poems.

Humanism

John Colet and Thomas More are names that easily relate to Humanism, an
anthropocentric reaction to the theocentric views of the Middle Ages and the Scholarism.
Humanists wanted to discover for themselves, rather than accept the dogmatic belief of what
the authorities established, although it didnt protest the pope and the Churchs authorities.
Among their goals, some were:
 - Translation of the Bible into vernacular languages.
- Personal approach to the Scriptures. Erasmus of Rotterdam and his colleagues
translated them directly from Greek.

The publication of the Bible in English, which was followed in 1538 by its placing in every
church in England, would serve to encourage Protestantism, for the Protestant faith was based
on the authority of the Scriptures that held the truth about the Christian religion, and that any
man could discover them for himself, for salvation was personal and could not be achieved
through the Sacraments.

Edward VI and Mary Tudor

Henry VIII died in 1547 and was succeeded by his son, Edward VI (1547-1553) who was
only nine at the moment. Henry had established the Protestant Regency Council for his son in
which the majority were redundantly protestant, people who wouldnt, or couldnt, try to
aspire for high power instead, they set about advancing the Reformation. The person at the
head of this regency was the Duke of Somerset, appointed tutor of Edward VI. Some of the
Protestants werent as moderate, however, something that pushed Archbishop Thomas
Cranmer to write the Book of Common Prayer (in English), which gave the Church of England a
very moderate Protestant form of worship. By 1522, extreme Protestant thinking had
prevailed and Cranmer wrote a Second prayer book, together with forty-two articles stating
Church doctrine. This was the high point of radical Protestantism in the Church of Englands
history, for Anglicanism had become a Protestant religion in full effect.

Henry VIII had excluded powerful men from the regency council to prevent anyone from
assuming complete control, but the Duke of Somerset became the effective head of
government almost at once and, when a deteriorating economy led to a peasants rebellion in
1549, the Duke of Northumberland took advantage and seized power. Somerset, an idealist,
became a martyr in the eyes of common folk when he was executed in 1552.

Northumberland was an unattractive power-seeker, but restored a measure of

government and had the young kings confidence. However, Edward wouldnt live long for he
was sick and Mary, his half-sister, daughter of Katharine of Aragon and an ardent Catholic,
were reason enough for Northumberland to be afraid of her succession. Thus,
Northumberland persuaded the king to name Lady Jane Grey heir to the throne. Jane was the
daughter of Mary, the younger daughter of Henry VII and wife of Northumberlands son.
 When Edward VI died in 1553, Jane was proclaimed queen, but received barely any
support and Mary Tudor took the throne with little trouble. Lady Jane, an innocent and tragic
figure, was executed, as were her husband and the duke of Northumberland. Indications are
that Edward VI would have been a cruel and arrogant ruler.

Mary Tudor devoted herself to the restoration of the Catholic religion in England and to
abolish the Act of Supremacy. While easy to restore the old services and doctrines, it was
impossible for the Church to regain the property it had lost during the Reformation. Some
Protestants refused to change their religion, and those who would openly defy Mary, were
executed, amongst them: the bishops of London and Oxford and, most important, Thomas
Cranmer were burnt at the stake. This only nourished Protestantism, and the Queen earned
the title of Bloody Mary.

In 1553 at the age of thirty-seven, Mary Tudor married Philip II of Spain. Mary had hoped
that Philip would bring the resources of Spain and of the Habsburg family to her aid in the task
of Catholicizing England. Philip, however, looked for the support of the English military and
navy, since he was troubled by discontent in the Netherlands which was part of the Spanish
empire and because of his war with France. Philip disliked England and the English a feeling
that was mutual.

Both Mary and Philip wanted a son, and when, fourteen months after the marriage it was
clear she wouldnt bear any children, Philip returned to Spain, never to return to England nor
to see Mary again. Mary would be succeeded by her half-sister, Elizabeth, of whom she was
deeply suspicious about her hasty conversion to Catholicism. When, in 1558, Mary I died, she
obliged Elizabeth to accept Catholicism as the official religion of England. Elizabeth wouldnt
keep her promise.

Elizabeth I (1558-1603)

Its unclear where Elizabeth stood theologically but she quickly judged a religious
settlement was imperative in England, in order to avoid the country being consumed by
religious wars like other European countries. She aimed to appease the views of as many
peoples as possible in a national Church, since continued adherence to Rome was impossible
she was the offspring of the condemned marriage between Anne Boleyn and Henry VIII
hence, in the Elizabethan Religious Settlement she:

- Maintained a moderate Anglicanism.

 - Was obliged by the House of Commons and pressured by the Church to adopt the
Second Book of the Common Prayer to set out the doctrine.
- Separated from Catholicism.
- Established a compulsory to the Anglican masses; otherwise, fines would be
endorsed.

She took the title of Supreme Governor of the Church, rather than Supreme Head, just as
Henry VIII had done, hoping that Catholics would accept their monarchs lesser claim to
governorship. Jesuits had control over education. As they founded schools, they were
perceived as a growing threat; thus, the queen passed laws against both Catholics and Jesuits
to prevent this from happening, angering the Pope in the process. Elizabeth enjoyed a long
reprieve before being excommunicated in 1570, and even then it was clumsily handled.

Puritans became a serious opposing force to the queens settlement. These Protestants
wished to purify the Church of Roman Catholic ideas. They were concerned to get rid of
vestments and what they deemed unnecessary ceremonial. Elizabeth wouldnt make any
concessions nor would she accept their demands for a reform of Church government, which
led to a Puritan attack on the Elizabethan Church in the House of Commons.

Elizabeth began a policy of self-imaging, establishing herself as the victim of the Popes
actions as he was disrespectful of England. She turned out as the leader and self-proclaimed
Great Savior of the Nation. Anglicanism became the only true religion of Christianity;
Catholics faced exile. The Pope was considered The Whore of Babylon.

The Commons was concerned for the queen to marry and secure the succession, but she
never married, for she used it as a diplomatic weapon to gain the friendship of countries
whose rulers thought she would be a good match. Elizabeth realized that Catholic Europe
could never support her religious settlement. Her foreign policy was designed to ensure
furthering Spains many problems. The Low Countries had to pay special taxes because of their
wealth. The Duke of Alba was sent to repress the rebellion, which he so violently did. Elizabeth
wanted to avoid a direct confrontation with Spain, but since a major portion of the Dutch
population was Protestant, she helped them in their revolt against Phillip II of Spain. She also
maintained a policy of friendship towards France, Spains great rival.

In 1568, Mary Stuart, Queen of the Scots was deposed and exiled by the nobility. She
travelled to England, where Elizabeth could virtually hold her prisoner and control her as she
was the only Catholic claimant to the throne of the English throne. Mary was in the center of
several Catholic plots against Elizabeth, but she didnt execute her at first because her claim
would pass to Philip II of Spain rather than her son, who was being brought up as a Protestant.
In 1587, after Marys part in the Babington Plot to kill the queen, the House of Commons
pressed Elizabeth to execute her.

In 1588 Philip II of Spain launched the Spanish Armada against England. It was comprised
of 130 ships and 8000 seamen, and it was intended to transport a Spanish army from the
Netherlands to England. But though superior in number, the Spanish ships were less
maneuverable and less effective in northern waters. In July, the English defeated the Spanish
fleet, hailed as a great victory in England. Elizabeth consolidated a national identity and
became the leader of the Elects. However, the English successes thereafter were infrequent
and Elizabeth faced economic problems and high inflation.

These financial considerations held up Elizabeths conquest of Ireland completed in the

year of her death in 1603 as well as the conquest of Scotland with which she had
considerable success. Some of the distress in the countryside among the poor was caused by
the consolidation (enclosure) of land under the ownership of one man or a group of
landowners in each district. This resulted in a drop in employment and the drift of men to
towns which couldnt absorb the surplus labor.

Elizabeths government instituted two social measures of importance:

- In 1563, the Statue of Artificers made masters responsible for the welfare and
education of their apprentices for a period of seven years.
- The Poor Laws of 1597 and 1601 obliged the parishes to provide for the sick and
unemployed.

Elizabeth Is reign saw the founding, out of local funds, of many grammar schools,
hospitals and alms houses to look after the aged. The growing wealth of Tudor England was
reflected in a vast building program. From 1557 to 1580, Sir Francis Drake completed the
circumnavigation of the globe, the first ever done by an Englishman. Exploration of the New
World continued, although attempts to establish colonies in America failed. Sir Walter Raleigh
perpetuated his sovereigns name by calling his proposed colony Virginia, in honor of the
Virgin Queen.

Scotland in the Sixteenth Century

James IV was fifteen when his father died in battle. After a brief regency, he took over
government. He learned Gaelic language in an attempt to understand that part of his kingdom.
James solution to the highlands was highly unsatisfactory. He suppressed the lordship of the
Isles and distributed its power among the heads of clans of his choosing. Without a single
authority, warfare between clans became more intense and harder to restrain.

In 1503, James IV married Margaret Tudor, the eldest daughter of Henry VII. It was a
political marriage, intended to stabilize the relations between England and Scotland. In the war
of England with France, Scotland backed France, however, because of the Old Alliance.

In 1513, James IV was killed in battle, defeated by the Earl of Surrey, commander of
Henry VIII. That same year, James V assumed power in his teens, proving himself ambitious.
He exploited the Churchs funds, knowing that that the Church wouldnt give up his friendship
with Protestantism on the attack. His second marriage was to Marie de Guise, whose family
was one of the most powerful in France and would lead the Catholic cause in the country.

In 1542, the Scots were defeated at Solway Moss when James embarked on war with
Henry VIII. James V died that year as well. Both of his sons died at birth, making of Mary, his
one-week-old daughter, the successor and Queen of Scots, and of Marie the Guise, the queen
mother, head of the Regency. Marie de Guise was extremely capable and would not assent to
Henrys demands; she sent Mary to France to contract a French marriage for her and to
maintain Scotlands alliance with France.

Religion in Scotland

Scotland remained Catholic while Henry VIII broke with Rome. However, it was
impossible for the Scottish Kirk the Church to prevent Protestant literature and ideas to
cross borders.

In 1546, Cardinal Beaton, the head of the Kirk in Scotland, who had spasmodically
persecuted heretics, was assassinated by a group of Protestants.

Archbishop Hamilton, Beatons successor, attempted a reform of the Church, but to no

avail. Its funds had been largely diverted from the parishes. Consequently, the parish clergy
were poor and ignorant, giving the common folk an underwhelming, bad service by their
priests.

John Knox and Calvinism

One of Beatons assassins was John Knox, who considered his own work as part of the
task of converting Scotland to Protestantism. He preached Calvinism, which was
characterized by:
 - Great emphasis on the authority of the Bible.
- Extreme simplicity in Church services.
- Predestination and assurance. A group of people, faithful enough, would be
predestinated to be saved by God, and they knew or were assured they would
become the Elect or the Chosen.

Calvinism spread through Scotland, obliging Marie de Guise to call for the French army to
confront the Protestants. In 1560, an English fleet and army were sent to support the Scottish
Protestants rebels. The French were defeated and withdrew, and in June, Marie de Guise died.
In August 1560, the Scottish Parliament abolished the authority of the pope in Scotland, and
Latin masses were outlawed. Decisions about the details were left to a group of reformers, led
by John Knox, who agreed on a strictly Calvinist settlement. However, Catholicism continued
to be a major religious force in the Highlands.

Mary, Queen of Scots

In 1558, Mary had married Dauphin Francis, the heir to the French throne. From April
1559 to December 1560, she was queen of France. In August 1561, she returned to Scotland
and, although she was a Catholic, Mary accepted Calvinism as the national religion.

In 1565, Mary married her cousin Henry Stewart, Lord Darnley, also a Catholic, who
aspired to kingship, something that stirred trouble in the marriage. In 1566, Darnley and others
murdered David Riccio, who, as a confidant and secretary of Marys, had aroused intense
jealousy and suspicions of unfaithfulness.

In 1567, Darnley was killed by James Hepburn, earl of Bothwell. Mary married James,
following the rites of the Protestant Church.

In 1568, the Scottish nobility deposed Mary, alarmed by the power her husband had
gained through their marriage, and forced her to abdicate in favor of her baby son, so a
regency could be arranged. She later fled to England.

In 1583, her son proclaimed himself King James VI of Scotland after finding the regency
irksome and determined to not let himself be controlled by the nobility again. When Mary was
executed in 1587 for her complicity in the Babington plot, James kept quiet. He ensured
Scotland remained neutral during the attack of the Spanish Armada in the following year.
James married Princess Anne of Denmark, a solidly Protestant marriage, although he wasnt a
Calvinist.

In 1603, James VI travelled to England, aiming to secure his succession to the English
throne on Elizabeths death. He was very eager to possess his new inheritance.

The Stuarts

James I (1603-1625), Elizabeth Is successor, was king of Both England and Scotland,
although the union of both crowns didnt go as far as James wanted. The administration,
Parliaments and courts of the two countries continued to function separately. The Tudors had
created an autocracy in Church and state, but without the financial means to sustain it. For the
monarchy to become financially independent, it would have been necessary to impose greater
taxes on the ruling classes both in town and the country, and this, the House of Commons
wouldnt allow.

To save themselves from the approaching state of ruinous taxation imposed at a royal
will, restrictions on economic activities, a bad foreign policy and the encouragement of
Catholicism at home, large sections of the ruling classes revolted against the king in 1640. The
legislation their Parliament passed in 1641 was intended to make it impossible for a king to
rule without it.

In 1604, at the Hampton Court Conference, James I adopted Anglicanism and condemned
the Puritans. They could either conform to James wishes, protest or leave the country. Many
of them obeyed the laws as they stood; other Puritans mounted criticism of the royal policy in
the House of Commons and outside, and a small number of them left to establish the Colonies
in North America, where they could worship as they pleased. The Mayflower in 1620 is the
most celebrated of the Puritan exoduses by 1640 there were five colonies in North America
which were sufficiently independent.

In November 1605, a group of Catholic extremists decided to blow up the king and
Parliament when James opened the new session. One conspirator, Guy Fawkes placed
gunpowder in the cellars beneath the Houses of Parliament, but the plot was discovered and
Fawkes, along the other plotters, arrested and executed. Since then, Parliament and
Protestantism has been celebrated each year on 5 November.
 At the Conference, a commission was set up to ensure a new translation of the Bible,
which was completed in 1611 with the cooperation between Anglicans and Puritans. It was
known as the Authorised Version, or King Jamess Bible; its beautiful language has endeared it
to generations of readers.

James relied on the Parliament for money, where, in the House of Commons and among
those whom they represented, there was widespread discontent. The sale of noble titles and
manipulation of feudal rights caused growing corruption in the Court. All this, as well as James
declaration of divine right caused him struggle with the Parliament.

Another source of friction between the king and the House of Commons was foreign
policy. Peace was made with Spain in 1604, but was unpopular. However, James finally
conceded to his critics and declared war on Spain in 1624. When Spain forged an alliance with
France in 1646, England declared war on France. The English navy did badly, and the Commons
was bitterly critical on this. James I died in 1625, but his son, Charles, inherited the Commons
wrath at Englands military failures.

The Colonization

The Vikings were the first ones to discover the New World. They arrived in
Newfoundland, but didnt find anything of their interest maybe those cute Labrador-like
dogs. In 1497, John Cabot went to colonize the land, to no avail.

When Elizabeth I became queen and the peace was established in England, they became
more and more interested in these new territories. The most famous colonizer was Walter
Raleigh, responsible of the conquest of Virginia.

King James I needed money to finance the war with Spain, so he resorted to selling
patents to merchants. Two important companies were founded: the London and the Plymouth
Companies. The London Company sent three ships: Susan Constant, Godspeed and Discovery.
The first of the three was the most important, in which John Smith travelled.

Three different kind of colonies, depending on their main functions, existed:

- Economic colonies.
- Proprietary colonies.
- Religious colonies.
 The economic colonies were trading posts of the London and Plymouth companies. In
1607, they arrived at Virginia and called that coast Jamestown. John Smith spent all his life
travelling around the world. On the voyage to The New World, he faced several problems with
the authority of his group. He led a revolt against their leader and got them to accept him.
When they arrived to Jamestown, a lot of men died in different circumstances. Some then
decided to abandon the group, while others agreed to remain with John.
They lacked any commodities and begun their exploration. The members of his group were
killed by a native Indian, as they were considered tribe; he was captured. A famous woman,
Pocahontas, saved him when he was about to be killed.

Proprietary colonies were territories conceded to nobles and particulars by the King as a
payment for the debt. The most famous of these colonies were Pennsylvania and Maryland. In
Maryland had coexisted different religions. Pennsylvania was founded by William Penn, who
also founded Quakerism, a new religious branch. It was characterized by:

- Rejection of hierarchal rites and appearances.

- The doctrine of the inner light, inspiration that comes within each individual.
- Religious toleration in the colony.

Religious colonies were created with the religious views and purposes brought by the
Puritans.

In 1620, a group of Puritans called the Pilgrim Fathers went to the New World. They
wanted to land in Virginia, but the wind had forced them to arrive at Cape Cod, in the borders
of Virginia. The first Puritan colony was Plymouth; later, others were created around
Massachusetts. This territory is called New England.

Before their arrival, the Pilgrim Fathers decided to sign the Mayflower Compact that
established the creation of a government for the colony. The Bible Commonwealth was also
established, which could serve as a model for those left behind. This government didnt accept
any law that wasnt in concordance with Gods will.

There were bouts of intolerance. Roger William, a non-Orthodox Puritan, was against the
practice of expressing and demonstrating the faith in public, which was compulsory. He was
thusly exiled out of the community. He would later found the colony of Providence.

Anne Hutchinson was another critical voice against Nomianism. She founded Rhode
Island, in which they tolerated people of other religions.
 Native Americans were kicked out of the colonies. As generations went by, Puritans
became more materialists, which was perceived by the Orthodox Puritan elderly as a sign of
devilish schemes. The affected by this presence of the devil were deemed as witches.
In 1692, the most famous case of these witch hunts were The Salem Trials.

Charles I

When Charles I succeeded his father in 1625, Parliament refused to grant him the
traditional taxes of tonnage and poundage for life, as per custom and Charles dissolved
Parliament in anger. A second Parliament was also dissolved quickly, in the face of debates
dominated by foreign affairs the war with Spain and the attempted impeachment of the
Duke Buckingham.
In 1627, a Forced Loan was imposed. In 1628, war was declared on France. That same year, in
August, the Duke of Buckingham was murdered by a soldier.

Charles hoped for his third Parliament in 1628 to be more cooperative, but it further
opposite the king than ever before. It passed the Petition of Right, which reminded the king
that:

- There could be no taxation without the consent of the Parliament.

- Imprisonment without proper trial was illegal.
- Military law shouldnt be applied to civilians.
- Billeting on private citizens shouldnt be allowed.

The king rejected their demands. The House of Commons believed it was protecting
personal liberty and property against royal encroachment. When Charles went on collecting
tonnage and poundage without parliamentary authorization, a revolutionary scene occurred:
the Speaker the chairman of the Commons was held down in his seat and not allowed to
adjourn proceedings, while the Members passed resolutions on taxation and religion. Charles
arrested the leaders of the Opposition, dissolved Parliament and determined never to call
another.

From 1629 until 1640, Charles ruled without Parliament, a period that has been called The
Personal Rule and the Eleven Years Tyranny. In this period, England came at peace with
France and Spain, and tensions arose over Charles financial demands.
 In 1637, the New Prayer Book was written by William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury. He
mounted a fierce campaign to make the Puritans conform to his interpretation of the state
religion, Anglicanism, to which the king was heavily devoted. This was resent beyond the ranks
of the Puritans, and punishments were imposed by Church courts under the direct control of
the monarchy and outside the common law.

The most hated of Charles ministers was Thomas Wentworth, the earl of Strafford and
president of the Council of the North and Lord Deputy of Ireland. He was loyal and efficient.
Parliaments great fear was that Strafford, who had collected a large Catholic army in Ireland,
intended to use it to suppress opposition to royal authority in England.

The chain of events that led to the calling of Parliament started in Scotland in 1637, when
Charles imposed a liturgy on the Scottish kirk. This followed gradual pressure by James and
Charles to make the Scottish Calvinist Church more like the Church of England, but the new
liturgy united all classes throughout Scotland against Charles. This would be cause for the
Bishops Wars.

The Bishops Wars are two conflicts between England and Scotland in 1639 and 1640,
caused by fierce Scottish reaction against King Charles Is attempt to reform the Kirk, which
would see the implementation of the Scottish National Covenant against the kings reforms in
1638.

Determined to assert his authority, the king formulated an ambitious military campaign
against the Covenanters. However, his plans were thwarted by lack of funds, support among
his subjects and experience among his commanders. The English army that mustered on the
Scottish border in mid-1639 was unprepared and ill-equipped, no match for the Covenant
army. The king agreed to negotiate a truce that ended in an inconclusive treaty known as the
Pacification of Berwick.

In 1640, King Charles attempted a second campaign against the Scots, and once again, his
forces were no match for the Scots. The Covenanters quickly mobilized their forces to suppress
Royalist clans in the Highlands while the main Covenanter army under General Leslie marched
into England. Leslie bypassed ineffective English defenses on the borders and advanced on
Newcastle. After the English forces were routed at the Battle of Newburn in August 1640, the
English abandoned Newcastle to the Covenanters and retreated. The king was forced to
negotiate a truce at Ripon.
 The Scottish army expelled Charless forces from Scotland. Charles asked the nobility for
money to fight the war, but none was helpful. In April 1640 he called the Fourth Short
Parliament, but it would only grant money on terms unacceptable to Charles. After the English
forces were routed at the Battle of Newburn in August 1640, the English abandoned
Newcastle to the Covenanters and retreated. The king was forced to negotiate a truce at
Ripon. At the end of 1640, Charles was obliged to call the Fifth Long Parliament (1640-1660)
to ratify the treaty one of the most famous Parliaments in English history which undertook
sweeping reforms of Church and state. The Scottish leaders contact with the English
Parliament throughout this time and their cooperation brought King Charles submission.
Restriction of the crowns powers were ensured.

War and Republic, 1640-1660

The Long Parliament at once impeached Strafford and Laud. Strafford was executed in
May 1641 and Archbishop Laud in 1645. A Catholic rebellion was, meanwhile, having place in
Ireland. The king was obliged to summon regular parliaments by the Triennial Act, and the
Long Parliament itself, under a separate measure, could only be adjourned, prorogued or
dissolved with its own consent. Non-parliamentary taxes were declared illegal. Leading
Puritans who had been imprisoned during the Personal Rule were released and compensated.

This was welcomed by most Members of the Parliament, but by the end of 1641 there
had been a rallying of support for the king. The situation deteriorated; Parliament attempted
to seize custody of the royal family, and Charles endeavored to arrest the leaders of the
Commons, and then civil war began.

The First English Civil War (August 1642-1646) divided the country broadly in two. The
economically advanced south and east and nearly all major commercial and manufacturing
cities, London included, sided with Parliament. The poorer north, the west and Wales fought
for the king. There were the Cavaliers Royalists and the Roundheads Parliamentarians. There
were the Levellers who wanted the franchise extended to small property owners and artisans.
There were Diggers, who advocated rural communism and the common ownership of land.

Initially, the king had the advantage, as he commanded the only army and alone had any
clear idea of what he wanted, while the parliamentary side was a collection of interests which
at first didnt know how seriously to fight the war. The long-term advantages all lay with
Parliament, however, for they controlled most of the money, the productive capacity of the
country and the seas, isolating the king and keeping trade under control.

The English Parliament allied with the Scots and formed the Solemn League and Covenant
in 1643, under the terms of which the English agreed to adopt the Scottish form of worship in
return for the services of a large Scottish army. This arrangement didnt take account of the
fact that only one section of the parliamentary side let alone the English nation at large
liked the Scottish religious model.

On 6 January 1645, the Committee of Both Kingdoms established the New Model Army,
appointing Sir Thomas Fairfax as its Captain-General. Although Oliver Cromwell who was the
Member of Parliament for Cambridge handed over his command of the Army, Fairfax
requested his services when another officer wished to emigrate.

Scottish and English troops defeated the Royalists at Marston Moor, Yorkshire, in July
1644. The New Model Army took the field in late April or May, 1645 and on 14 June, it
destroyed King Charles smaller but veteran army, defeating the king at the Battle of Naseby,
also in Yorkshire. Charles surrendered to the Scots, was made prisoner and extradited to
England in January 1647 in exchange for 200,000. Parliament began negotiations with
Charles.

A serious division grew up between Parliament and the army that would bring about the
Second English Civil War (1646-1649). Members of Parliament were afraid of the power of the
army and suspicious of the generals intentions. The army in turn felt it should have some say
in the ordering of affairs in peacetime. Oliver Cromwell was the leader of the army. The
qualities that enabled him to win battles, helped him less in politics, for he had no ideas about
how he wanted the country ruled. He was loyal to the army but impatient of idealists and
politicians in Parliaments, intent on taking power for themselves and disregarding of those
who had fought the king.

Cromwell had to secure the parliamentary victory in Ireland and Scotland. His brutality in
Ireland in 1649 associated his name with curses in the present day. When Charles escaped
from captivity in 1648, the Scots accepted him. Although he agreed to the Scottish line in
religion, it is dubious that he was sincere. The Scottish army was decisively defeated by
Cromwell and the captured king brought to trial. Cromwell was determined that Charles
should die in order to prevent further plotting and wars from happening. Thus, in January
1649, Charles was executed, the first European monarch to be after a formal trial and to be
found guilty of his crimes. The office of King was formally abolished by the act of Parliament
that same year.

The Parliament was purged, following Prides Purge of those members of the Long
Parliament who didnt support the political position of the Grandees in the New Model Army.
Just before and after the execution of King Charles I, the Rump passed a number of acts of
Parliament creating the legal basis for the republic. With the abolition of the monarchy, Privy
Council and the House of Lords, it had unchecked executive and legislative power.

Cromwell demonstrated his capability to maintain order throughout Britain, hence the
English Republic (1649-1660) was born. Sporadic Royalist uprisings were crushed, and the
Scottish army in favor of Charles Is son Charles imaginative people defeated. He also
rooted out radicalism in the army. Scotland was put under English rule and controlled by an
army big enough to maintain law and order.

The Protectorate, as the English Republic was called, arose tensions and conflict between
the Parliament and the Army about the leadership of the government. It was concluded that
leadership should belong to both the Army and the Parliament, and thus Oliver Cromwell was
named Lord Protector of England.

England started being Puritan with simple services, no images, no bishops, etc. There was
a strong censorship on literature, where the only publications allowed were about morality,
religion and politics. Theaters were forbidden as they were considered sinful, but it saw the
birth and development of what would become the Opera in England.

Ireland, which rebelled against England during the Civil War, was severely repressed by
Cromwell. Scotland was part of England and under his grip as well. With the passing of time,
Cromwell turned dictatorial, surrounding himself by a handful of men to advise him.

When Cromwell died in 1658, so did the Republic. His son, Richard, resigned the title of
Protector which he had inherited from his father. General Monck, the leader of the army in
Scotland, took control of the country as a transitional figure. The surviving members of the
Long Parliament convened and asked Charles II to return as king. The republic had ensured the
continuance of the monarchy in some way, as well as the principle of maintaining large armies
in wartime only.

The Republic saw the triumph of Puritanism. Bishops were abolished, and Church services
made simple. Theaters were closed and frivolous amusements scorned, but it wasnt simply
censorious, however. The Puritans believed in the merits of education, and all men should be
able to read the Bible. In 1616 and 1635, Acts of Parliament in Scotland had imposed on
landlords the duty of creating and maintaining a school in every parish. Puritan theology had
an enormous impact on the political field.

The Restoration (1660-1685/9)

The old order was restored in 1660 but, significantly, by Parliament. In was clear that
future government would be conducted by a partnership of king and Parliament, whether the
king liked it or not. The House of Lords and bishoprics which had been abolished by the
Republic were restored. The army disbanded, having secured back pay and promises of
pensions.

Puritans were driven out of public life by a series of laws passed between 1661 and 1665,
and central and local government was put firmly in the hands of Royalist landowners and
merchants. Puritans who would not agree to the Anglican order of the Church were called
Dissenters or Non-Conformists. Many went to prison, but only eleven were executed those
who had signed Charles Is death warrant. Cromwells body was disinterred and displayed
publicly in London.

As a result of the previous repression, Libertinism arose, a philosophy that was followed
by some members of the Court of Charles II. It sought:

- Disregard for conventional manners and values.

- Contempt for their world, but more so for reformers. The attempts to bring about the
reforms were considered hypocritical.
- Cynicism was a common theme and attitude.
- Egocentric hedonism as a code of conduct.

Followers of Libertinism were called The Court Wits.

Charles IIs declared aim was to remain king, and he succeeded. He was a Catholic, though
he wisely kept this a secret until his death. He admired the absolutist monarchy of Louis XIV of
France, and he disliked dependence on Parliament. In 1670, Charles began secret negotiations
with Louis, which culminated in the secret Treaty of Dover, by the terms of which, Charles
undertook to declare publicly his adherence to Catholicism, whilst Louis promised to help
Charles reconvert England with money and soldiers. Both kings also agreed to attack Holland,
and war was declared on the Dutch in Mach 1673.

Two days before, Charles had issued a Declaration of Indulgence for Roman Catholics and
Dissenters, by which he granted permission for them to hold public office. The Parliament was
outraged, and as a result, they passed the Test Act, which obliged office holders to take
Sacrament according to the Church of England. The Act reaffirmed Anglican supremacy. The
kings brother, James the future king who was a declared Catholic, resigned his office as
Lord High Admiral who was in charge of the country during the kings absence as he
wouldnt convert.

The Dutch War ended in 1674, but Charles still perceived financial aids from Louis XIV,
which brought about the Succession Conflict. This allowed Charles the independence
necessary to defeat a large party that had grown up, committed to preventing the succession
of Charles brother, James, and to ensuring that of Charles natural son, the Protestant Duke of
Monmouth. Two groups emerged from these fights. One was called the Petitioners, because
the petitioned the king not to prorogue or dissolve Parliament. The other was called the
Abhorrers, because it expressed abhorrence of the Petitioners. These parties were later known
as the Whigs and the Tories.

Tories and Charles II supported James as successor of the king, though he was Catholic.
The Whigs, whose leader was the Earl of Shaftesbury, supported the Duke of Monmouth and
bastard son of the king that, if recognized, would be eligible for the crown.

The Whig Oates spread the rumor that the Popish Rome was about to attack England.
This was called the Popish Plot (1678-1681), that gripped the Kingdoms of England and
Scotland in anti-Catholic hysteria. Eventually, Oates intricate web of accusations fell apart,
leading to his arrest and conviction for perjury.

The triumph for Charles and the Tory landowners ensured the smooth succession of
James II in 1685. Charles left the monarchy strong and financially secure. In 1673 he had to
give way, but from 1681 to 1685, with the support of the Tories, increased revenues from
customs and French money, the king ruled without Parliament.

England experienced a commercial revolution from 1660 until 1700. The Navigation Act
of 1660 had the effect of putting nearly all Englands trade, and that of her colonies, into the
hands of English merchants. The most important developments were in colonial trade. England
had growing possessions in North America. Colonial trade was stimulus for English industry,
which prepared it for the Industrial Revolution of the next century. England had the largest
navy by the end of the 17th century and was able to retain and extend his monopoly and
development of colonies, trading posts and stations in America, India, and Africa.
In a series of wars in the 1660s, the English defeated the Dutch, who had to give up trade
which English merchants considered theirs. They also surrendered New Amsterdam in 1664,
which later became New York, named after James, duke of York, future king.

The year 1665 saw the last visitation to London of plague on a large scale. In the
following year, the Great Fire destroyed much of the old city, taking with it the remnants of
the plague bacillus.

Settlement and Union (1685-1714)

In 1685, James II succeeded his brother. He was a Catholic, something that wouldnt be an
issue hadnt he tried to aid his co-religionists, but in two royal declarations in 1686 and 1687,
James ordered the suspension of penal laws against Catholics and Dissenters, the last of
which particularly insulting to majority Anglican opinion. The hostility of the Anglicans wasnt
balanced by gratitude from Dissenters, as they realized that James really intended to benefit
Catholics.

James Indulgences came at the worst time, as Louis XIVs revocation of the Edict of
Nantes in 1685 began a persecution of Protestants in France and confirmed Protestant fears in
England. The archbishop of Canterbury, together with six bishops of the Church of England,
defied James order to read out the Indulgence, and were sent to the Tower on a charge of
seditious libel. In June 1687 they were acquitted by a jury and their release was met with joy in
London, an ominous sign for James as London had a reputation for dissent and was usually no
friend of bishops.

When Jamess second wife, the Catholic Mary of Modena, gave birth to a son in 1688
James Francis Edward there was general despair at the prospect of an unending succession
of Catholic monarchs. The only solution was to replace James by Mary, his daughter to Anne
Hyde. Mary was Protestant and married to William of Orange, Stadtholder of Holland and
champion of Protestantism in Europe. On 1 November, 1688, Prince William landed in
England with a small army, forcing James to flee in panic. He and his heirs would make
attempts to take back the throne, but the Jacobite cause was lost.
 The Glorious Revolution, as the events of 1688 and 1689 was called, saw the removal of
James II, a monarch who had ignored the sentiments of the ruling class and the people at large
because other monarchs didnt ignore common folk, right?

William and Mary were crowned and ruled jointly at the insistence of William. A
Declaration of Rights was drawn up by Parliament and agreed to by both. Old ills such as
taxation without parliamentary consent and the maintenance of a standing army in peacetime
which James II reintroduced were declared illegal. Dissenters were allowed to worship
freely, though they were still barred from office by the Test Act of 1673. This toleration was
most significant in Scotland.

In 1694, a Triennial Act provided that Parliament should meet every three years and also
that no Parliament should last longer than that. The monarchy still retained great authority,
but royal power was now restricted, in practice if not in principle. Control was exercised over
the king mainly through finance, as there could be no possibility of the king making himself
independent of Parliament.

The Restoration settlement also took away the kings power to remove judges and instead
vested this power in Parliament. Judges held office quamdiu se bene gesserint as long as they
gave satisfactory service and were removable only by an address from both Houses.

War with France came again in 1700, in the reign of Queen Anne, when Louis XIV
accepted the crown of Spain on behalf of his grandson. Louis XIV arose further English
suspicions by recognizing King James IIs son, James Edward, as the rightful king of England.
The English army won a series of spectacular victories over the French. At the end of the war,
by the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713, Britain gained Nova Scotia, the Hudson Bay Territory,
Gibraltar and Minorca, only the last of which was later to leave the British Empire.

The situation in Ireland was not happy. English governments from Elizabeth I to Oliver
Cromwell had established plantations in Ireland, meaning settling English and Scottish
Protestants as conquerors on land seized from native Irish landlords. The plantation policy
resulted in landowners being English and Protestant and the peasantry being Irish and
Catholic, two classes that were kept apart by cultural, economic and religious divisions.

There was a major rebellion in Elizabeths reign and another in 1641. Had there been
unity among the Irish, the English, who were divided by the Civil War, could have been beaten.
Cromwell defeated the Irish in 1649 and carried out a mass confiscation of land belonging to
both Irish and English Catholics.
 James II sought refuge in Ireland and collected together a large Catholic Irish army. He
was decisively defeated in the Battle of the Boyne by William III in July 1690. William IIIs
government took land and power away from the English aristocracy which had supported
James, and from those Irish property owners who supported the rebellion.

The most important issue of Queen Annes reign (1702-14) concerned the relationship
between her two kingdoms, England and Scotland, as they shared little else than the same
monarch. The need to guarantee the Protestant succession after Annes death urged her
English government to press for union. After her seventeen children died, the succession was
vested in a remote relative, the great-grandson of James I.
The Jacobite cause had a strong following in the highlands and there was fear that the House
of Stuart, ancient in Scotland, might be more popular than Annes named heir, George of
Hannover.

A Treaty of Union was worked out by English and Scottish commissioners which
embodied two main ideas:

- The Hanoverian succession should be accepted.

- Both Parliaments should join together at Westminster.

The Act of Union of 1707 was heavily criticized in Scotland. The smallness of Scottish
representation at Westminster also caused annoyance; however, in the 18th century, groups
were represented in Parliament and not individuals, and Scotland was in general too poor to
exercise much influence in the Parliament of Great Britain.

The seventeenth century saw the transformation of English society. James I wrote to his
son asserting that monarchs were ordained by God to rule, something that Charles believed.
By William and Marys reign it was clear that sovereigns ruled by the consent of Parliament.
The philosopher John Locke could speak at the end of the century about government deriving
from, and being responsible to, the people, though the people in question were the
substantial property owners. He outlined a political system in which legislature and executive
were separate and a judiciary balanced the two. It was a conservative ideal, but its principles
were far from those of Stuart autocracy.

James I was obsessed with witchcraft. The last witch trials happened in 1727.