English History

Chapter 1 Celtic and Roman Britain

Historians tend to begin English history

with the Celts, who crossed from the
European continent and settled in the
British Isles (England, Wales, Scotland, and
Ireland) during the first millennium B.C.
The Celts consisted of numerous tribes that
shared a culture dating back to the Bronze
Age in Central Europe (1200 B.C.)
 Their warrior aristocracy
possessed considerable wealth
and power. In the first century
B.C., the Romans began their
incursions into Britain, and in
the first century A.D., Britain
became a province of the
Roman Empire.
 The Romans ruled Britain
for 4 centuries, but the
influence of Roman culture on
Britain was slight. In Roman
times, Christianity proved to
be the most enduring.
Celts
1.social classes: nobles, freemen, slaves
2.Celtic religion: known as druidism,
involved the worship of nature deities
1)immortality; transmigration of souls
2)monument at Stonehenge
Roman Britain
 1.The Celtic Queen
Boudicca’s revolt against the
Romans in A.D. 60
2.Hadrian’s Wall was
intended to protect Roman
Britain from incursions by
Caledonian tribesmen.
 3.London, the commercial center,
became the center of government for
Roman Britain.
4.By the 3rd century, Christianity was
becoming widespread. St. Patrick became
the patron saint of Ireland.
Hadrian’s Wall: a stone wall
built by the Roman Emperor
Hadrian across the north of
England in 122 AD from the
east to the west, in order to
defend Roman Britain from
attack by northern Caledonian
tribes.
Chapter 2 Anglo-Saxon England

From the 5th century Roman Britain

came under the control of the Anglo-
Saxons. In the next several centuries,
Anglo-Saxon institutions developed,
Roman Catholic Christianity became
the religion of the land, the several
Saxon kingdoms became the united
kingdom of England, and the English
fought a long struggle against the
Danes.
The history of England from the 9th
century to the early 11th century was
dominated by the struggle of the English
against the Danes. Although the royal
house of Wessex regained the throne by
Edward the Confessor, soon after his
death England was conquered by the
Normans, and a new era in English history
began.
1. Resistance from Britons:
the legendary King Arthur of
the Roundtable
2. The Anglo-Saxons
worshipped nature gods.
3. The seven kingdoms of the Anglo-Saxon
heptarchy developed; Northumbria,
Mersia, East Anglia, Essex, Wessex, Kent,
and Sussex.

4. The Celtic Christians didn’t

acknowledge the pope as the head of the
church, and the Celtic church didn’t
require its priests to be celibate.
5. King Ethelbert became the first Anglo-
Saxon king to embrace Christianity, and
Augustine, the first archbishop of
Canterbury.
6. The class structure: nobility, freemen, serfs,
and slaves
7. The government: the hundreds as
administrative and judicial units; the
shires as the largest administrative units
in Anglo-Saxon England; the king and
the witan (a council)
8. the law: the customary law
emphasized the payment of monetary
compensation; compurgation (proof by
oath); the ordeal
9. In the struggle against the Danes, or
the Vikings;
1). King Alfred of Wessex was considered
the greatest figure in the history of
Anglo-Saxon England, and the first king
of a united England. (P18-19)
2). King Edward the Confessor regained the
throne.
10. literature: the poet Caedmon, and
the epic poem Beowulf
Chapter 3 The Normans
In 1066, William, the Duke of Normandy,
crossed the English Channel and began his
conquest of England, which is an important
turning point in English history. William
the Conqueror established a powerful
monarchy and created the best-organized
state to exist in Western Europe since the
fall of the Roman Empire in the West.
The Norman nobility replaced the old
Anglo-Saxon nobility, and the institutions
of Norman feudalism fused with Anglo-
Saxon traditions. England was brought
into closer contact with the European
continent, from which the English gained
a lot, but England often became embroiled
in French affairs.
Lanfranc’s efforts to reform
the English church: enforcing
clerical celibacy and monastic
discipline, improving the
education of the clergy, and
eliminating simony
William supported the reform,
but refused to acknowledge
the supremacy of papal
authority, and didn’t permit
the pope to control the
selection of bishops and
abbots.. He separated the
systems of secular and
ecclesiastical justice .
1. Norman feudalism: suzerain (feudal
overlord) and vassals; manors and serfs
2. French became the language of
government and law, and educated people
were fluent in French and Latin. English
was reduced to a spoken language; as a
result, English grammar became simplified,
and the vocabulary was enriched with
French words.
3. Norman architecture was typical of
Western European architecture during
the 11th and 12th centuries, which was
characterized by the use of round
arches, massive, heavy walls, and small
windows.
4. In 1087, William the Conqueror left the
duchy of Normandy to Robert, his eldest
son, and passed the English crown to his
second son, William II, known as William
Rufus (William the Red-faced).
5. Henry, the king’s younger brother
became king of England and, in 11o6,
invades Normandy and defeated
Robert.
6. Henry I, who gained the title “lion of
justice”, also began the practice of
sending out itinerant justices, who
went from the curia Regis to the shire
courts to administer justice in the
name of the king.
7. In less than a century after its
establishment by William the
Conqueror, the feudal system began
to decline in England.
8. Henry began to take money payments,
known as scutage (shield money),
from bishops in lieu of service
.
9. In October 1154, Stephen, the
grandson of William the Conqueror
and nephew of Henry I, died. The
direct line of Norman kings ended,
and England now had a new royal
family, the Angevins, also known as
the Plantagenets.
10. During Stephen’s reign, the
prestige and power of the
monarchy established by
William the Conqueror had
declined as the nobility asserted
its claims against the crown.
Chapter 4 Henry II and His Sons
King Henry II, the first of the Angevin, or
Plantagenet(1154-1485), kings of
England, was a capable, intelligent,
and energetic monarch. He combated
the anarchy that had developed
during the reign of King Stephen.
Henry’s two sons proved to be less
capable rulers. For most of his reign, King
Richard I was absent from England,
fighting either on the Third Crusade or in
France. King John confronted three
opponents ---- King Philip Augustus of
France, Pope Innocent III, and the English
barons, and defeated by all three.
One of the greatest of
England’s kings, he is known
for his enduring contributions
to the English system of
justice and also for his bitter
conflict with Thomas a Becket,
the archbishop of Canterbury.
1. King Henry II became king at the age
of 21.
His mother Matilda was Henry I’s
daughter, and the widow of the Holy
Roman Emperor Henry V.
His father Geoffrey was the son of
the Count of Anjou, and was known as
the Plantagenet for the sprig of broom
he wore in his helmet.
2. The Angevin Empire extended from
Scotland to the Pyrenees.

3. King Henry II created a new system of

royal law common to the entire kingdom----
the foundations of English common law.
4. The conflict between King Henry II and
Thomas a Becket resulted in Becket’s
murder.

5. King Richard I the lionhearted and the

three Crusades
6. King John’s conflicts with King Philip
Augustus of France, Pope Innocent III,
and the English barons weakened his
position.
7. Magna Carta the first step in the creation
of constitutional government in England
Chapter 5
The Thirteenth Century

1. The conflict between the king and

barons led to the emergence of
Parliament, which was the most
important development in English
government and politics in the 13th
century.
2. The Friars conducted an active ministry
among the people.
3. The universities offered education in
four areas: the liberal arts, law,
medicine, and theology. (Oxford and
Cambridge)
4. In the late 12th century, the graceful
Gothic style developed to supplant the
heavy Norman Romanesque.
(perpendicular)
5. Economic activities and guilds of all kinds
6. William Wallace was regarded by the
Scots as a national hero.
7. The Westminster Statutes---- the
change in relationship from lord and
vassal to seller and buyer or landlord
and tenant
8. limited representation of knights and
burgesses in Parliament----- the origins
of Parliament’s development as a
legislative body
9. Edward I won the nickname of the
“English Justinian” for his contributions to
law and justice. During his reign,
feudalism declined, and parliament
became firmly established.
Chapter 6
The Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries
 The 14th and the 15th centuries were a time a
turmoil and intensified violence: the Hundred Years’ War,
the Black Death, the peasants’ revolt, and the Wars of the
Roses. The authority of the monarchy and the nobility
declined, which hastened the end of feudalism and
helped the expansion of Parliament’s power.
 Industry and commerce expanded, advances in education
occurred, and the English language and literature emerged.
English national consciousness developed.
 Henry Tudor’s victory in 1485 ended the turmoil in the 14th
and the 15th centuries.
1. King Edward II was a weak monarch, dependent on favorites.

2- King Edward III fought an intermittent war against France for

nearly 25 years.

The Hundred Years’ War (1337-1453)

4. The Black Death (1348-1349) claimed one-third of England’s

population.
5- In the 14th century the English Church began to decline, and
the ideas of John Wycliffe foreshadowed the Protestant
Reformation of the 16th century.
The Wars of the Roses Emergence of Henry Tudor
8. In 1362, English replaced French as the language of the courts
of law.
9. Geoffrey Chaucer and his Canterbury Tales
Chapter 7
The Tudor Century: Henry VII and VIII (1485-1547)

 - Henry VII restored order and stability to the kingdom

following the turmoil of the Wars of the Roses.
 - Henry VIII succeeded in breaking England’s ties with the
papacy, and this religious reformation marked the beginning
of a new era of turmoil.
 - Henry VII and Henry VIII provided orderly and effective
government, winning the support of the prosperous middle
classes, who appreciated the peace and stability the kings
brought to the nation.
 -
1. The power of the monarchs increased, while
the authority of Parliament declined.
2- During the 15th century the enclosure
movement had gained momentum in England.
3- Decline of the craft guilds
4. In the early 16th century, the Protestant
Reformation began on the European continent
with Martin Luther and John Calvin as
representatives.
5. King Henry VIII’s six marriages
Catherine----mother of the future Queen Mary
Anne Boleyn----mother of the future Queen Elizabeth
6. The Act of Union of 1536 incorporated Wales completely into
England.

7- . The English Renaissance----Thomas More and his Utopia

(1516)

8. Henry VIII succeeded in breaking England’s ties with the

papacy.
 Chapter 8

The Tudor Century: Edward VI, Mary I, and Elizabeth I1547-1603

- Under King Edward VI, the Church of England

(Anglican Church) became more Protestant in
doctrine and practice.
- Queen Mary attempted to restore Roman Catholicism.
- Queen Elizabeth I led England during one of the most
glorious periods in its history. In religion, she
sought to find a broad, moderate settlement that
would satisfy the great majority of her subjects,
and thus resolved the religious turmoil
1. Under King Edward VI, the Church of England
became more Protestant.
2. Queen Mary I, England’s first reigning queen,
attempted to restore Roman Catholicism, and
prosecuted some 300 Protestants, which led to her
acquisition of the nickname “Bloody Mary”.
3 -Queen Elizabeth I, the last of the Tudors (1485-1603),
established the monarch as the “supreme governor”
of the Church of England.
4. Efforts to establish colonies in the New World turned
out to be unsuccessful; while new trading companies
were established, such as the East India Company
(1600).
5- Queen Elizabeth I, who never married, used the
possibility of marriage as an instrument of
diplomacy with France and Spain.
6- Puritan movement came to challenge the
established Church of England and the authority of
the monarchy.
7- English efforts to establish colonies in the New
World were unsuccessful. (Sir Walter Raleigh, an
explorer, was the first to bring tobacco to England)
8-Elizabethan literature Shakespeare (1564-1616) and
his works
Chapter 9 The 17th Century:
The Stuarts Versus Parliament

- In the early 17th century, James I and

Charles I tried to establish an absolute
monarchy and enforce their views on religion,
and this resulted in the Civil War and the
execution of Charles I in 1649.
- The eleven-year experiment (1649-1659) in
republican government failed to provide
England with stability in politics and religion.
The army leaders took over.
1. King James I from Scotland had to face two issues: the
relationship between the crown and Parliament, and the
relationship between the Calvinist Puritans and the Church of
England.

2. The King James Bible (1611)

3- The Gunpowder Plot and Guy Fawkes (Nov. 5, 1605
4- Involvement in the Thirty Years’ War in Germany (1618-1648)
5- King Charles I ruled England without Parliament for 11 years
(1629-1640) .
6- The Short Parliament (3 weeks) was summoned to suppress
the Scottish revolt ( Presbyterian was the dominant religion).
7. The English Civil War(1642)
8. In 1644, a Scottish Roundhead army defeated the
Cavaliers.
9- The eleven-year Interregnum and the experiment in
republican government.
10- Cromwell, an ardent Puritan, pursued an aggressive
foreign policy designed to promote England’s commercial
interests.( the Dutch War and the War with Spain) His
experiment in republican government failed.
 Chapter 10
The 17th Century: Restoration and Revolution

The 17th century was an era of political and

religious turmoil for England, but it was
also a time of remarkable achievements
in the arts, literature, science, and
political thought.
The long conflict between Parliament and
the Stuart monarchs led to the Glorious
Revolution of 1688, which restricted the
power of the crown, and established a
constitutional monarchy, and reaffirmed
the position of the church of England as
the country’s established church.
1. King Charles II made no attempt to
reestablish royal absolutism and
avoided conflicts with Parliament.
2. The Dutch War of 1665--- the
English seizure of the Dutch colony of
New Netherland (later split into New
York and New Jersey)
3. King James II attempted to impose
royal absolutism and promote a
restoration of Roman Catholicism.
4. The Glorious Revolution (the Bloodless
Revolution)-----the Whigs and the Tories
5. In 1689, Parliament awarded the
English Crown to William of Orange, the
Dutch ruler, and he became King William
III.
6. The Bill of Rights
7. The Nine Years’ War (1688-1697) between the
French and the Holy Roman Emperor and his allies
8. Some figures to be remembered: Anthony Van
Dyck; John Milton and his “Paradise Lost”; Francis
Bacon; Sir Isaac Newton; Thomas Hobbes; John
Locke( “knowledge from experience”, “social
contract”)
 Chapter 11
The 18th Century: The First Hanoverians (1714-1901)
1. King George I, the elector of the
German state of Hanover, never learned
English.
2. The Tories failed in supporting James
Edward Stuart’s claim to the English
throne.
3. King George I and George II
maintained close ties with the Whigs.
4. Robert Walpole served as the King’s
chief minister (prime minister) for some
20 years (1721-1742). His economic
policies were to encourage industry and
commerce, and to reduce interest and
taxes.
5. “The Forty-Five” (1745) was the last
attempt to restore the Stuarts to the throne.
6. The British Museum was built in 1753.
7. King George III tried to undermine the
Whig oligarchy and weaken the cabinet
system that placed limits on his authority. The
party of “King’s Friends” in 1760s resulted in
the return of the Tories to power since 1714.
8. Methodism began as a reform movement
within the Church of England, but it became a
separate denomination by the end of the 18th
century.
9. Literary figures: Alexander Pope (the
England’s greatest 18th-century poet;
Daniel Defoe and his “Robinson Crusoe”;
Jonathan Swift and his “Gulliver’s
Travels”; Henry Fielding and his “Tom
Jones”.
10. Robert Walpole owed his
long tenure as the country’s
first real prime minister to his
ability to manage the House of
Commons.
 Chapter 12
The 18th Century: Empire and Politics

1. the Quadruple Alliance (p187): Great

Britain, Austria, France and the
Netherlands to restrain Spain
2. “Second Hundred Years’ War” between
Great Britain and Spain
3. the War of Austrian Succession (1740-1748):
Prussia, France, Bavaria and Saxony as one side,
Austria, Great Britain, and the Netherlands as
the other
4. The British focused their attention on the
colonial war against France (in North America,
the West Indies, and India)
5. The Seven Years’ War (1756-
1763) involved both a continental
war and a colonial conflict,
resulting in a considerable
expansion of the British Empire.
6. When Prussia invaded the kingdom of
Saxony, the British contributed substantial
financial support to Prussia, hoping to
divert France’s resources away from the
colonial war overseas.
7. The British benefited from their control
of the sea.
8. The Treaty of Paris(1763): Great Britain
won a decisive victory over France, and
little was left of the French Empire in the
New World
9. The American Revolution
10. Economic Reform Acts lessened the ability of
the Crown to influence Parliament.
11. In 1807, Parliament abolished the slave
trade.
12. In 1788, the first 750 British settlers, most
of whom were convicts, established Sydney
13. British policy of opposing Russian
expansionism in the Near East (the Middle
East)
14. William Pitt the Younger, the leader of
the resurgent Tories, became Prime
Minister. His reform efforts included:
1) establishing an auditing commission to
supervise government finances;
2) reducing tariffs in order to discourage
smuggling;
3) simplifying the complicated system of tax
collection;
4) reducing restrictions on foreign trade-----
the first step on Britain’s road to a free-
trade policy.
 Chapter 13
Great Britain, the French Revolution and Napoleon
1. The French Revolution in 1789 initiated
a generation of warfare in Europe.
France was at war with most of Europe.
The war continued until the final defeat
of Napoleon Bonaparte in 1815.
2. The British initially sought to remain
uninvolved, but the war threatened British
control of the English Channel, so in 1793,
Great Britain went to war against France.
Three Coalitions were formed.
1) Great Britain joined Austria, Prussia,
Spain and Sardinia in the War of the
First Coalition against France.(1793-
1796)
2) Russia formed a new alliance with Great
Britain, Austria, Portugal, Naples and
the Ottoman Empire to fight against
France.(1799-1801)
3)Britain formed a new
coalition with Austria and
Russia in the war against
France.(1805-1807)
3. The British interference with American
shipping, combined with the expansionist
ambitions of American “War hawks” who
hoped to annex Canada, led to America’s
entry into the war of 1812 against Britain.
4. The British made important territorial
gains, but the war against France and
Napoleon left Great Britain with a huge
national debt, and it experienced a severe
postwar economic depression that lasted
until 1820.
5. The fear of revolution that had led to
repressive policies during the war years
continued to influence the British
government in the postwar era.
 Chapter 14
The Agricultural and Industrial Revolutions

The Agricultural Revolution

1. the development of scientific agriculture;

the practice of crop rotation
2. Tull’s horse drawn seed drill; “Turnip
Townshend”
3. The scientific breeding of cattle and
sheep
4. The introduction of new crops ( potatoes,
peas, cauliflower, asparagus)
5. The Enclosure Movement starting in the
16th century .
The Industrial Revolution
1. Reasons for Great Britain’s leadership in the
industrial revolution
1) ample resources of coal and iron
2) available capital for investment
3) mercantile experience
4) policies designed to promote industry
and commerce
2. Innovation of machinery: the flying
shuttle, spinning machine, the cotton gin
3. Factories replaced small workshops and
cottage-based industries.
4. The development of the steam engine
provided a dependable and efficient
source of power, and made possible the
development of industry in towns far
from rivers.
5. The interrelationship among the steam
engine, coal mining and iron production
6. The first efficient method for the mass
production of steel (1856)
The Revolution in Transportation
1. The construction of canals and roads
2. The development of the steam engine and
improvements in the quality of iron led to the
invention of railroads (Stephenson’s locomotive
in 1825).
3. Water transportation developed quickly
owing to steam power.
The revolution in Communications

1. In 1836, Samuel F. B. Morse, an

American, invented the telegraph.
Submarine telegraph cables and trans-
Atlantic cables were built.
2. In 1840, Great Britain introduced the
penny post, the first modern postal
Developments in others
Areas
1. the principle of limited
liability
2. population growth and
distribution
3. the human cost of industrialization: long
working hours, low wages, crowded slums;
without adequate sewage facilities, a safer
water supply, educational opportunities, or
access to health care
4. liberalism; the doctrine of laissez-faire
and Adam Smith;mercantilism
5. Malthus on population
6. Ricardo and the Iron Law of Wages
7. Bentham’s utilitarianism led to the
creation of the 20th century welfare
system
8. John Stuart Mill’s ideas about universal
suffrage
9. different kinds of socialism: Utopian
Socialism (Robert Owen), Christian
socialism (brotherly love)