English History I
This sceptred isle – Christopher Lee
55 BC-AD 448
- before 55 BC: Celts/Britons (common language: Celtic; runic script)
- Celtic place names were so well established that the Romans often simply Romanized
them
- priesthood: vates, druids, bards + filid (magician, lawgiver, judge)
- farms, hamlets, and even villages – a form of regular and marked ownership of land,
organized agriculture
- beginnings of industrial pottery
- there were Gallo-Belgic coins→ people in the lowland areas were infiltrated by those
from the Continent
- 55 BC: Caesar
- 56 BC: he conquered Gaul – Britons fought in Gaul alongside Caesar’s men
- Britons knew that C wanted to conquer the isle→ some of the tribes sent envoys to C,
because they didn’t want to fight
- 55 BC: C’s attack→ Britons submitted
- descended upon Albion on the low where Romans reached the shore and forced the
Britons to flight
- C returned to Italy: prepared a new fleet of specially designed warships and transports
(he designed the first landing craft)
- 54 BC: C returned to Britain
- some of the Britons united under a leader called Cassivellaunus (he may have been
the king of the Catuvellauni, the strongest of the southern tribes)
- Trinovantes (tribe in Essex) and other tribes entered into a pact with Caesar
- finally peace was negotiated
- winter: revolt in Gaul→ C left Britain and never came back
- AD 43: Romans’ return – Claudius (Cassius Dio, 3rd century AD, about Roman History)
- Britons exported cattle, hides, grain, slaves, gold, silver, hunting dogs and imported
wine, oil, glass – most of this trade was with the prosperous South East
- 78: the completion of the conquest – Agricola (governor of Roman Britain 75-85)
- 122-128: construction of Hadrian’s Wall
- there were more than 20 large tribes (e.g. Iceni in East Anglia, Catuvellauni in the East
Midlands and Essex, Trinovantes in Essex, Parisi in Yorkshire, Silures in Wales,
Brigantes in Pennines) – Strabo (1st century BC): Geographica
- Cunobelinus/Cynobellinus established an overlordship over the South East with his
capital at Camulodunum (Colchester) – after his death the kingdom was ruled by his
sons Caractacus and Togodumnus, but they were not everywhere recognized –
inability to cooperate
- return to Britain by an exiled Briton, Bericus – the commander was Plautius
- he first defeated Caractacus and then Togodumnus
- Caractacus escaped to the Welsh border, and roused its tribes→ resistance for more
than 6 years – he was defeated by general Ostorius in AD 50→ he escaped to North,
but the northern queen handed him over to the Romans
- Claudius joined the Roman legions on the banks of the Thames→ captured
Camulodunum→ the Senate gave him the title of Britannicus
- the centre of the Roman Britain remained Camulodunum
- AD 54: Claudius died→ Nero
- 60-61: Boadicea/Boudicca (Tacitus: Annales)
- the king of the East Anglian Iceni died – his widow was Boudicca
- she rose against the Roman invaders (hit and run tactics were successful)
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English History I
- she went for Camulodunum→ they overcame the Roman infantry, and the commander,
Petilius Cerialis, had to escape
- she went for London→ Suetonius abandoned London
- she attacked Verulamium (St Albans)
- Suetonius reinforced his army, and marched to the Midlands→ he massacred the Britons
(Boudicca poisoned herself)
- the Romans ruled Britain for 500 years
- 367: the first concerted action by the barbarians against Roman Britain
- 410: Honorius authorized the civitates of Britain to defend themselves→ Romans left Britain
- there were no further contemporary written accounts for many years
- except: Gildas the Wise – monk in the middle of the 6th century – wrote a religious
tract with glimpses of history
- almost 5000 miles of roads built by the Romans remained
- urban decay started before the Romans left
449-884: Anglo-Saxon period
The Anglo-Saxon chronicle
Venerable Bede (673-735, monk in Jarrow): Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum
(Ecclesiastical History of the English People)
Nennius: Welsh scholar in 9th century
Beowulf epos in the first half of the 8th c.
- Saxon invasion: extermination in Sussex, farther west substantial British population
remained
- Anglo-Saxon conquest was mainly a change of masters for the Britons
- hill, wood, and stream names are often Celtic in origin, even in regions where the village
names are Anglo-Saxon
- 449: Vortigern, a great British tyrant, (Gildas didn’t name him) hired mercenaries to defend
the Britons against the Anglo-Saxons, Picts
- 449: Hengist, Horsa (Anglo-Saxon leaders) arrived, and got land at the estuary of
Thames, but they began to expand to Cantebury
- c. 455: other tribes arrived, and pushed the Britons westwards (Bretagne, Ireland)
- Saxons (seax – short one-handed sword): Sussex (477), Wessex (495), Essex (527)
- exodus from Schleswig-Holstein
- Angles: East-Anglia (575), Middle-Anglia, Deira and Bernicia – united as Northumbria
(547), Mercia (586)
- Jutes: Kent (449), the Isle of Wight
- Arthur:
- gathered the forces of Roman Britain against the invaders→ 12 battles
- c. 490-503: Britons’ great victory at Mons Badonicus/Mount Badon – the commander
may have been Arthur (Nennius)→ it brought peace for half a century
- some small Celtic kingdom survived until the 6th century – the Anglo-Saxon ascendancy
became complete only at the beginning of the 7th c.
- they preserved the independence: Celts in Wales, Cornwall, Scots in Albion, Picts in
Caledonia
- statute-books (criminal law): Aethelberth (560-616) in Kent, Ine (688-726) in Wessex, Offa
(757-796) in Mercia
- wergild: exact value of every man, blood-fine
- atheling (prince) – 1500 shillings, eorl (nobleman) – 300, ceorl (yeoman farmer) – 100,
laet (agricultural serf) – 40-80, slave – 0
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English History I
- society: - slaves
- laets (semi-free)
- free status: - ceorl (they had 1 hide at least)
- gesithas (members of the royal attendants)
- thegn: noblemen, they had at least 5 hides in return for military serv.
- etheling: natal/native rank in upper aristocracy
- ealdorman: administrative rank in the upper aristocracy
- king gathered round himself a band of the most successful warriors and interested them
directly in the conquest and in settlement, and he gave them land in exchange→ seeds of
landed gentry
- everything (title, position, land) was owing to the monarch
- administration since the 5-6th c.: shires ←hundreds (taxational, constabulary, military tasks)
- the hundreds had functioned as courts – the ealdorman is the chairman
- fryd: armed duty of freemen
- witan: select council, assembly of ‘wise men’ never more than 60
- bretwalda (bret=Britain, walda=ruler): one of the kings of the Heptarchy who have
ascendancy over the other kings, there were 7 bretwaldas
- Aelle – the first (final quarter of the 5th c.)
- supremacy of Northumbria (607-747)
- Oswald (633-643)
- Oswiu (642-670)
- supremacy of Mercia
- Offa (757-796)
- kings of Wessex (at the end of the 8th c.)
- religion:
- Columba: (Venerable Bede)
- 565: priest and abbot came into Britain to preach in the provinces of the Picts (north) –
the beginning of the Ionan community
- southerners had already been converted by a Briton, Bishop Ninian
- Bridius was the king of the Pictish nation – they were converted to the faith of Christ
- c. 595: moved to Ireland, established the Abbey of Iona→ Celtic-Irish evangelization
- he moved to the Continent, and established Luxeuil, Fontaines, Sankt Gallen, Bobbio
- 597: Augustine (“Apostle of the English”) with many monks was sent to Britain by
Pope Gregory→ Roman Catholic evangelization
- they crossed to the Isle of Thanet
- they got protection from Aethelberht, the king of Kent – his wife, Bertha, a Frankish
princess, was Christian→ he appointed Canterbury to the centre of the work
- the first Anglo-Saxon bishops stemmed from the schools of Canterbury in the 640’s
- mid 7thc.: whose version of Christianity should rule (Augustine’s or the northern Celtic?)
- Celtic-Irish evangelization
- the conversion of the Irish is connected to St Patrick (5th c.) – he established
Armagh (episcopal centre)
- monasteries became the most important institutions of the church, they formed
virtual cities
- succursal churches of Abbey of Iona spread over Scotland and Northumbria
- Hilda, Princess of Northumbria, established Whitby
- Aidan, from Iona, established Lindisfarne, his disciples spread in Mercia→ Penda
king converted in Mercia + Oswald, king of Northumbria
- Roman Catholic evangelization
- Sigibert, king of East-Anglia, was baptized in Gaul in c. 630
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English History I
- Dorchester was the centre of the church in Wessex
- Paulinus, Jacobus (Augustine’s companions) worked in Northumbria→ Edwin
converted, bishopric of York and Lincoln was reorganized, but after Edwin’s death
there were heathendom again (Oswald cold in Aidan)
- 669: Theodoros from Tarsus arrived
- 778: Alcuin left York, and went to the Continent to Tours (Charlemagne)
- 663: Synod of Whitby: choosing between Celtic and Roman church
- Anglo-Saxon kings:
- Kent: Aethelberht – Augustine’s evangelization (at the end of the 6th c.)
- East Anglia: Redwald (wide dominion over Central England)
- Northumbria: Edwin (Aethelberht’s son-in-law, he gained crown with Redwald’s aid)
- he was recognized as overlord of all the English kingdoms except Kent
- 625: he married a Christian princess of Kent (daughter of Aethelberht)
- 625: Paulinus arrived, converted Edwin
- 633: he was slain by Penda and Cadwallon
Oswald (633-643, Edwin’s successor)
- 634: he defeated Cadwallon (the last pitched battle between the Britons & the Saxons)
- he became bretwalda
Oswiu (643-670) – bretwalda
- Mercia: Penda – heathen (converted by Aidan)
- 633: the heathen king made an alliance with Cadwallon (Christian British king of
North Wales) against Edwin’s dominion in order to break the Northumbrian power→
near Doncaster, Edwin was defeated and slain
- he was converted by Aidan’s disciples
Ethelbald – he ruled for 41 years (716?-757)
- he was murdered by his own bodyguard→ civil war in the Midlands
Offa (757-796)
- the first king who was anointed by the Archbishop of Canterbury
- his policy interlaced with that of Europe – he had the first quarrel since Roman times
with the mainland
- Charlemagne wished one of his sons to marry one of Offa’s daughters, but Offa
stipulated that his son must simultaneously marry a daughter of Charlemagne→ his
indignation, uproar – he refused→ Offa placed an embargo upon continental
merchandise→ finally, Charlemagne accepted
- Offa’s Dyke: between converted Saxon England and the still unconquered British
- 8th century: only 3 kingdom remained – Mercia, Wessex, Northumbria, the others
became viceroyalty or provinces led by ealdorman
- Wessex: Cerdic founded, during Ine’s reign began to rise
Egbert (802-839) – bretwalda
- 825, Ellendune: he subjugated Mercia (and its dependant kingdoms – Kent, Essex)
- East-Anglia, Sussex recognized its dominion
- Northumbria became his tributary (tax-payer)
- 835: he subjected Cronwall (Celtic kingdom)
Alfred the Great (871-899)
- Vikings’ arrival (Swedes, Norwegians, Danes)
- 789: first appearance at Portland in Dorset, massacre and then withdrawal
- 793: Lindisfarne
- 794: - Jarrow – they were attacked, their ‘king’ was captured and killed→ for 40 years
the English coast were unravaged
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English History I
- north of Scotland: the Vikings set up encampments in Caithness, Sutherland,
Shetland and in the Orkneys→ they went on to Ireland – Olaf founded Dublin
- 865: East of England – they already wanted to settle!
- Ivar the Boneless (his father, Ragnar Lodbrok was captured and thrown into a pit of
poisonous adders to die by the King of Northumbria)→ revenge→ captured York→
the end of Northumbria
- 8 kings and 20 jarls anchored
- 869: Edmund king died as martyr
- Danes settled from Yorkshire to Norfolk in the East of England
- West Saxons made peace with the host
- Alfred the Great (871-899) from Wessex
- ‘Danegeld’: he bought the peace from Guthrum (who captured Mercia, London, and
attacked Wessex)
- the father of the British navy
- he fought against the Vikings with his brother, king Aethelred (died in 871)
- battle at Ashdown/Berkshire Hills: first victory over the invaders
- battle at Wilton: Alfred was defeated
- 878, Chippenham (his headquarters): his army was dashed into confusion, many were
killed or fled overseas – Alfred hid in the marshes and forests of Somerset and the Isle
of Athelney (he stayed with a cowherd – burnt cakes)
- 878, Ethandun/Edington: he defeated Guthrum→ peace in Wedmor→ division of
England and Guthrum’s baptism→ Athelstan name (Alfred was his godfather)
- Danelaw: Northumbria, East-Anglia, half of Mercia, Essex with London
- Alfred: Wessex, Sussex, Kent, half of Mercia
- 887: Alfred captured London – it became the centre of the resistance
- he divided the country into military districts, he introduced the fryd (levy in mass) – one
soldier after every 5 hides, determined number of soldiers after every fortified town
- the landowners had 3 commitments: armed duty, maintenance of bridges, guarding of
strongholds
- jurisdiction of the Royal Court became recognized
- he collected and published the codes of the Anglo-Saxon kings in English
- he was an erudite king, he translated famous works into English
- the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle was written in Winchester during his reign
885-1065:
- 885: Viking invasion in the Continent – they rowed up the Seine, and for 6 years they
ravaged the interior of Northern France
- 892: they went from the kingdom of the east Franks westward to Boulogne
- 892: Haesten came into the mouth of Thames, made a fort at Milton Regis
- Alfred firstly offered gold to the invaders
- because of his illness, Alfred gave way to Edward (his son) – his ally was Aethelred, the
Mercian prince→ they began to fight
- 893, Benfleet (below London): Haesten’s stronghold was captured, his wife and 2 sons were
led captive – Alfred restored them to Haesten
- Ethelwald (Edward’s cousin) fled to the Danelaw→ aroused the Vikings of Northumbria and
East Anglia
- 902: Ethelwald and the Danish king, Eric, crossed the upper reaches of the Thames,
ravaged part of Wiltshire→ Edward ordered the invasion of East Anglia→ the Danes
triumphed, but Ethelwald and Eric died→ the new king, Guthrum II. Made peace with
Edward
- 910: Danes broke the treaty→ they were decisively defeated
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English History I
905-980: reconquest of Danelaw
- Edward (899-924)
- his sister married Aethelred (Mercia) who died→she became the Lady of the Mercians→
the forces of Mercia and Wessex were united
- he conquered Wales (kings of Owen, Gwent) and north (Scottish kings)
- Aethelstan (924-939): Rex totius Britanniae
- he established frithgilds (alliances for peace)
- 926: he conquered Northumbria with Mercians
- 933: general rebellion against him – Constantine (king of Scots), Olaf of Dublin with
Viking reinforcements from Norway
- 937, Brunanburh: his victory – the first patriotic verse in the origins of English language
- his 3 sisters were wedded to the Carolingian, Capetian kings, and to Otto the Saxon, his
sister, Edith, married Henry the Fowler’s son, Otto (there were alliance)
- Edmund (939-946): Aethelstan’s half brother
- Edred (946-955): Edmund’s brother
- Eric Bloodaxe – Norwegian king until he was deposed→ sailed to Northumbria (he
united York and Dublin)
- 954, battle of Stainmore: Eric was killed
- Edmund had 2 sons: Eadwig/Edwy became the king of Wessex (senior kingdom in
England), and Edgar became the king of Mercia
- Eadwig (955-959)
- Edgar (959-975) – peaceful period
- his coronation was the first to have a written Order of Service – in 973 in Bath
- conscious administrative reconstruction (reorganization of shires with their sheriff or
reeve /royal officer directly responsible to the Crown/, creation of hundreds)
- elaborate system of shire, hundred, and borough courts
- taxation was reassessed
- one coinage, and one system of weights and measures
- the beginning of the native English literature (Homilies of Elfric)
- St Dunstan: Abbot of Glastonbury, Archbishop of Canterbury – re-birth of monastic life
- Eadwig banished him from England, but Edgar restored him
- Edward (975-978): Edgar’s son, he was murdered by Aethelred’s mother
979-1016: the Danish conquest
- Aethelred the Unready II (978-1016): Edgar’s son
- 980: serious raid began again – Chester, Southampton, Cornwall, Thanet, Devon
- 991, the Battle of Maldon in Essex: Byrhtnoth (alderman in Essex) died
- he took large numbers of Danish mercenaries into his service – at first, he laid tax for the
Danish soldiers in 991 – but he was afraid of the foreign soldiers, therefore, he
massacred them in 1002 on St Brice’s Day
- 1002: he married Emma (sister of the Duke of Normandy, Richard)
- 1003: Sweyn, king of Danemark, took revenge→ Aethelred paid more bribes
- 1013: Sweyn and his son, Canute returned→ attacked and conquered the Danelaw,
Wessex, sacked Oxford, Winchester, but he was repulsed from London→ Aethelred fled
to Normandy (he returned after Sweyn’s death in 1014)
- Edmund Ironside (1016) – he died
- after Aethelred’s death the witan in London proclaimed Edmund king =Wessex, Essex,
East Anglia), but the others proclaimed Canute king (Mercia, Northumbria)
- he was murdered
- Cnut (1016-1035): king of Denmark, England, and the conqueror of Norway
- after Edmund’s death, the chiefs of England agreed to recognize Canute as king
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English History I
- he exiled Edmund’s sons to Norway, but they escaped to St Stephen in Hungary
- married Emma, but he had already a wife and a son who were packed off (she became
the Regent of Norway) – he exiled Emma’s sons to Normandy (Alfred, Edward)
- his sister married Robert, the Duke of Normandy
- he professed high devotion to the Christian faith and to the Papal diadem, supported the
cult of St Dunstan, Edmund, and Edward, he pilgrimized into Rome
- he didn’t changed the Anglo-Saxon institutions
- the Danish title of earl emerged – it was appointed by the king
- Godwine (Earl of Wessex) ↔ Leofric (Earl of Mercia)
- he collected Danegeld
- he kept house-carls (the king’s personal guild of fighting men)
- he travelled around the country as a judge
- he left 3 sons: 2 by a former wife (Harthacnut, Harold), 1 by Emma (Edward)
- 1036: Alfred hastened to England, but Godwine, the leader of the Danish party,
blinded him, therefore, he died
- Godwin and Emma wanted Harthacnut to be the king, Leofric wanted Harold
- Harold I Harefoot (1035-40)
- Harthacnut (1040-42) – he died
- Edward the Confessor (1042-66)
- 1043: he was consecrated in Winchester
- agent of Norman influence (he was the in exile)→ Norman prelates, clerks, landowners
- 1051: Godwine was exiled
- William of Normandy visited Edward in quest of the succession to the Crown – Edward
promised
- 1053: Godwine returned with his son, Harold, and with a force from Flanders→ obliged
the king to take them back into power – for the next 13 years, Harold (Earl of Wessex)
was the virtual ruler of England
- he married Edith, Godwine’s daughter
- after his death, there were more candidates: Edgar (the son of the king’s nephew), Duke
William of Normandy, the king of Norway, Harold (Godwine’s son)
- he became the patron saint of the English until the Hundred Years’ War (St George)
1066-1087:
- Normandy:
- Rollo, Viking warrior king, settled in Northern France at the beginning of 10th c.
- structured society – feudalism: a class of knights and nobles arose who held their lands
in return for military service, and sublet to inferior tenants upon the same basis
- no one but the Duke could build castles or fortifications
- chain-mailed/mail-clad knights, cavalry tactics, disciplined army
- two enemies attacked Harold II
- 1066, Stamford Bridge: Harold Hardrada/Fairhead, the Norwegian king, and Tostig,
Harold II’s half brother, defeated Earls Edwin and Morcar, but after that they were
defeated and killed by Harold II near York
- 1066, Hastings: Duke William of Normandy (Emma was sister of his father, Robert +
Harold swore an oath to William to renounce all rights upon the English crown – Harold
was driven by the winds onto the French coast, and became William’s friend)
- Bayeux Tapestry – designed by English artists under the guidance of William’s half
brother, Odo, Bishop of Bayeux
- William landed on the Sussex beach
- Harold died from an arrow through the eye
- Edgar the Aethling tried to defend London, but he gave up
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English History I
- the leading notables (Earls Edwin and Morcar, Edgar the Aethling) and clergy offered
William the Crown (Bishop Aeldred, Archbishop Stigand the great survivor)
- 1066, Dec. 24.: Archbishop Aeldred consecrated William king in Westminster
William the Conqueror (1066-87)
Sources: William of Malmesbury
- after the coronation he returned to Normandy→ entrusted England to Bishop Odo, Earl of
Kent, in Dover Castle and William Fitz Osbern
- the Normans were an army camped in a hostile country, holding the population down by
castles at key points
- Saxon resistance: Hereward the Wake in Ely Castle (East Anglia) – he was put down in
1071→ the symbol of resistance to evil authority – De Gestis Herwardi (his father was
Leofric, his mother was Lady Godiva)
Waltheof (Saxon leader) + disaffected Norman knights revolted in 1075→
he was executed→ although the Saxon population supported the king, Waltheof became
a martyr, because his execution was regarded as unjust act
- Normans everywhere: N castles guarded the towns, N lords held the land, N churches
- they intermarried with free population & identified themselves with their English past
- the only culture was French
- Textus Roffensis (early 12th c.): consisted of the Laws of King William – it protected his
Norman followers (ordeal of hot iron, wager of battle)
- made the Tower built
- improved the religious life
- improved the bureaucracy of the governing – established the Chancery
- imposed taxes
- 1086: Domesday Book (inquiry about the whole wealth of the King’s feudal vassals)
- the rulers of Scandinavia still yearned for England→ danger→ therefore, William needed
the taxes, and the fealty of his feudal tenants at Salisbury (1086)
- the Scottish King didn’t accept the frontiers
- Macbeth was beaten in 1057→ Malcolm the Bighead
- Edgar the Aethling was related by marriage to Malcolm
- when he was in England, his wife, Matilda of Flanders governed Normandy in Rouen
- problems with his sons: William Rufus, Robert, Henry
- Robert was reckless and spendthrift, conspired with the French Court→ single combat
between father and son in castle of Gerberoi – William was saved by Tokig of
Wallingford→ reconciliation
- French kings became more interested in Normandy→ struggles
- 1087: his horse stumbled→ he sustained an injury→ died in the priory of St Gervase
- heirs: William→ English Crown, Robert→ duchy, Henry→ money and prophecy
1087-1165:
Sources: Walter Mapp: Of Courtiers’ Trifles (12th-century chronicler, clerk in the royal
household), Richard of Hexam
William II Rufus (1087-1100)
- ruthless, greed & poor kingship – William became especially greed when Lanfranc Ø (1089)
- struggles between William and Robert due to the division of England and Normandy
- Henry was sometimes on one side, sometimes on the other
- Archbishop Lanfranc (Italy→ Bec in Normandy – education of the Conqueror’s sons→
Canterbury) – he supported William
- baronial revolts (they possessed property on both sides of the Channel→ they had feudal
allegiance to two sovereign lords)
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English History I
- 1088: great commotion and treason – Bishop Odo, Bishop Geoffrey, Earl Roger etc. (all
Frenchmen) wanted to make Robert king
- Saxon inhabitants stood by the King
- battle at Rochester Castle→ Odo and the others went into exile in Normandy
- 1096: Robert went on a Crusade at Antioch + Edgar the Aethling
- 1095: Pope Urban II announced against the Seljuk Turks
- Robert pawned Normandy to William for silver marks
- 1100: William was shot through the head by an arrow while hunting (he dreamt it) – Henry
was present at the accident
Henry I (1100-1135)
- first king, who proclaimed a charter upon his accession: conciliate the forces in Church and
State, he guaranteed the rights of the baronage and the Church, promised the conquered race
good justice and the laws of Edward the Confessor
- marriage with Matilda of Scotland/Good Queen Maud (granddaughter of Edmund
Ironside, daughter of Malcolm Canmore, King of the Scots who had been killed in England,
and the niece of David)
- 1101-18: subjugation of Normandy
- 1100: Robert wanted to take revenge on Henry→ feudal rebellion for 6 years→ 1106, Battle
of Tinchebrai: Duke Robert was sent to prison, and Henry consolidated the situation
- Normandy was united with England
- reforms – Laws of King Henry I
- Edward the Confessor’s memory was honoured
- first beginnings of a civil administrative machinery→ development of an official class
- sheriffs of counties
- there was no distinction between the private and public resources of the Crown→
sheriffs collected not only the taxes and fines accruing to the Crown, but also the
income from the royal estates
- he created the Court of Exchequer Chamber (separated from the Curia Regis): control
the sheriffs’ work, keep written records (e.g. Pipe Rolls)
- curia Regis: from Norman times to 13th c., council and court of justice – the germ of
Parliament, Privy Council and Cabinet
- in troublous times the office of sheriff tended to become hereditary – king saw to it
that his own men held these key positions
- 1120: White Ship disaster – the only successor of Henry died→ anarchy
- 1126, Windsor: Henry held his court in order that all archbishops, bishops, abbots, earls
and thanes take an oath on assenting to succession of Matilda
- Matilda/Maud was Henry’s daughter, her first husband was the Holy Roman
Emperor, and then Geoffrey Martel (son of the Count of Anjou)
- they had 3 children: one of them will be Henry II Plantagenet
- 1120s: David, the Scottish king, claimed territory
- he was the Earl of Northamptonshire
- he ruled with his brother, Alexander until A’s death in 1124
- this period was the zenith of Scotland’s power
- after his death: Stephen claimed the throne of England
- Henry’s sister’s (Adela married Stephen of Blois) son, so his nephew, grandson of William
the Conqueror by his mother
- count of Blois, Champagne, Chartres
Stephen (1135-1154)
- the Church anointed him King ↔ Matilda & Geoffrey + Robert of Gloucester (Henry’s
bastard son, powerful magnate in the West Country)
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English History I
- finally Robert paid homage to the King
- in order to get over the barons, he revived the holding of a court, a levee according to the
Constitutio Domus Regis (Establishment of the King’s Household)
- struggles: - uprisings in Normandy
- Robert of Gloucester was preparing for war in spite of his homage
- Welsh were in rebellion
- Scots invaded the northern counties – David (Richard of Hexham’s accounts)
- Northallerton: Archbishop of York repulsed the invasion
- Carham: David was beaten
- Stephen devastated Northumberland→ David left it
- 1139: Maud entered the kingdom to claim her rights (Church’s support)
- 1141: rebellion→ Battle of Lincoln→ Stephan was incarcerated (within 9 months released)
- civil war: cruelty, famine + Scottish pillage
- Stephen became more and more popular in contrast with Maud
- 1145, Faringdon (Berkshire): Stephen’s victory
- Stephen adopted Maud’s son, Henry Fitz-Empress, that is, Henry Plantagenet (Planta
Genesta=the broom)
Henry II (1154-1189) and the Angevin Empire
- King of England, Duke of Normandy, Lord of Aquitaine, Brittany, Poitou, Anjou, Maine,
and Guienne→ threaten for France (Louis VII and his son, Philip Augustus)
- French kings encouraged local feuds, wars which sapped Henry’s strength, they exploited
his family quarrels
- 1152: married Eleanor of Aquitaine (Louis VII’s wife until 1152)
- Scotland: King David died (1153)→ the weak King Malcolm paid homage to Henry
(Scotland didn’t regain its independence until Richard I)
- Wales: Henry II launched an expedition against Welsh prince, Owen Gwynedd in 1157→
failure→ peace in 1171
- 1176: first Eisteddfod (Welsh competition for bards and musicians) in the newly built
Cardigan Castle
1166-1189:
Sources: William fitz Stephen: Materials for the Life of Thomas Beckett
Henry II (1154-1189)
- re-established the central government ↔ feudal system
- based upon the Exchequer and the judiciary
- conflict with Thomas Becket
- conflict between the state and the Church: the Crown refused the claim of the Church to
interfere in the State – but the church enriched→ bishops became great landlords, secular
equal of earls + Gregorian movement (the government of the Church ought to be in the
hands of the clergy, under the supervision of the Pope, they have the right to
excommunicate)
- under Lanfranc, the Church worked with the Crown against the turbulent barons
- Becket: Chancellor of the King’s household, secretary, diplomat, judge, Archbishop of
Canterbury
- Becket changed→ he decided to establish the independence of the Church from the
hierarchy of the State
- 1163: refused to pay the customary dues for the royal Exchequer
- excommunicated without consulting the King
- protected clerks from the full punishment under the law
BUT: the Pope, Alexander III didn’t dare to support Becket
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English History I
- Henry revoked the promise made by King Stephen that State should be subservient to the
Pope – Constitution of Clarendon (1164), he confiscated lands owned by Becket, and the
council at Northampton condemned Becket
- Becket went into exile to France, but remained Archbishop
- Henry wanted his son crowned as his successor→ ignoring the law, he charged the
Archbishop of York to crown his son (↔ Becket, Pope, Louis VII)→ proclamation of
reconciliation in 1170 (Henry of Bosham’s accounts)
- finally four knights, on behalf of Henry, killed Becket in Canterbury (Edward Grim’s
accounts – he was clerk who was present)
- 1172: Becket became martyr within 2 years & Henry was ostracized
- 1172, Compromise of Avranches: peace with the Papacy→ the Church retained the system
of ecclesiastical courts independent of the royal authority & right of appeal to Rome +
penance & pilgrimage of Henry to the shrine of Becket (1174 – The Chronicle of Gervase)
- legal reform – English Common Law (Rannulf Glanvill, chief justice, supervised)→ 1.
comprehensive record of legal procedure
- Constitution of Clarendon (1164): fix the relationship of Church and State, he confined the
independence of the clergymen of the royal jurisdiction, confined the temporal and
jurisdictional power of the Church (e.g. the right of excommunication, clergymen should
do homage to the king, vacancy of the benefices)
- assizes were developed: came from the old French word for decision of a seated assembly
- 1166, Assize of Clarendon: 1. big piece of Henry II’s legislation (bail may be set, dates set
for hearings, anyone caught red-handed or admitted guilt didn’t get trial etc.)
- 1176, Assize of Northampton (about hospitality – responsibility, punishments – ordeal)
→ the competence of the royal courts were expanded ↔ manor court, eccl. courts
the assize-courts ↔ ordeal, wager of battle
all freemen could appeal to the royal court in exchange for fee
- Ireland, 1171: he landed at Waterford, moved to Dublin, built a palace there
- he was supported by the Papacy→ the submission of the Irish Church
- the Pope disliked the Irish Church: monasteries dominated, the bishopric, the See of
Armagh, was hereditary, most bishops married etc.
- the kings of Tyrone and Tyrconnel refused to pay homage to Henry
- international positions:
- his daughters married Norman King of Sicily, King of Castile, Henry the Lion of Saxony
- diplomatic agents spread his influence in the Lombard cities of Northern Italy
- rebellions between 1173 and 1186 in his families urged by his wife, Eleanor
- the chronicler, Gerald of Wales’s accounts
- 4 sons: John, Henry (Normandy, Maine, Anjou), Geoffrey (Brittany), Richard (Aquitaine)
- his sons got active support from the King of France
- 1188: Richard made war upon him in conjunction with King Philip of France→ Henry II
was defeated at Le Mans
Richard the Lionheart (1189-1199)
- he was in England only twice for a few months
- made peace with his father’s supporter – confirmed them in all their offices
- Hubert Walter: Archbishop of Canterbury, chief justice – he developed the system of
strong centralized government devised by Henry II, was a great mediaeval administrator
- the office of Coroner emerged – handled the royal holdings
- new assessments of land
- standardised weights and measures
- privilege of local self-government were granted to principal towns (e.g. London –
Mayor of London appeared in about 1191 – Henry fitz Ailwin)
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- generous to his 2 brothers:
- Geoffrey→ Archbishop of York
- John→ 6 counties (Devon, Cornwall, Dorset, Somerset, Nottingham, Derby), Lord of
Ireland
- built naval town – Portsmouth
- drew up the first Articles of War
- embodiment of the age of cavalry – military genius + diplomatic ineptitude
- conflict with Philip of France: Richard promised to marry his sister, Alice, but through his
mother, he married Berengaria, daughter of the King of Navarra
- Crusade: 1189-1192
- he imposed heavy taxes on England: ‘scutage’ (the commutation of military service for a
money payment), ‘carucage’ (a levy on every 100 acres of land)
- he sold Scotland to King William of Scotland (10.000 silver marks)
- story: Saladin, Turkish leader, united the Moslem power→ in 1169, he conquered Egypt,
Syria etc., in 1186, he proclaimed a Holy War→ defeated the Christian army of Jerusalem
- Richard resolved to ‘Take the Cross’ with Philip of France
- Richard dominated, he negotiated with Saladin
- the Crusade was doomed, largely because of the disunity among its leaders
- Richard set out for home because of the anarchy in England
- he was shipwrecked, so he headed home by land→ Duke Leopold of Austria captured
him, and sold him to the Holy Roman Emperor, Henry VI – he demanded the ransom
of 150.000 marks (twice the annual revenue of the Crown)
- Richard returned home in 1194
- rebellion:
- he entrusted William Longchamp, Bishop of Ely, with governing England→ drew upon
himself the envy and anger of the whole nobility
- Prince John confederated with Philip Augustus against Richard→ Philip Augustus
attacked Normandy, John raised a revolt in England – unsuccessful
- after 1194, he crossed the Channel to defend his French possessions
- his death: a treasure was dug up near the castle of Chaluz→ he wanted to dispossessed→
battle→ he died from an arrow in his shoulder→ he declared John to be his heir
John Lackland (1199-1216)
Sources: Matheus Parisus chronicler, monk and diplomat in the 13th c.: Historia Anglorum
- King of England, Duke of Normandy
- his opponent: Arthur (Prince of Brittany, Geoffrey’s son, his mother was Constance)→
John was not entirely accepted in French provinces
- Philip of France supported Arthur
- 1203: Arthur tried to kidnap Eleanor, John’s mother (his grandmother)
- he besieged the castle of Mirabeau in Poitou, but John relieved the castle, imprisoned
and castrated Arthur who died
→ Bretons went into great revolt
- married Isabel of Angouleme (daughter of the Earl of Gloucester)
- they hadn’t children→ divorce
- war with France:
- House of Lusignan was insulted→ formal complaint at the court of Philip→ he summoned
John to court, but he refused→ Philip deprived of all the fiefs which John held in France,
and give them to Arthur except Normandy and Guienne + betrothed him to his daughter
- 1202: Philip invaded Normandy – practically no resistance
- 1204: the English left Normandy
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- 1214, Bouvines: John ~ Otto Welf IV ↔ Philip Augustus II ~ Innocent III→ John lost his
French heritage (Anjou, Brittany, Maine, Normandy, Touraine)
- 1205: Eleanor and Hubert Walter died→ great loss
- conflict with the Papacy
- Pope Innocent III chose Cardinal Stephen Langton as the Archbishop of Canterbury ↔
John’s candidate→ John deconsecrated Church lands→ 1208: the Pope laid England
under interdict for 6 years
- John offered to make England a fief of the Papacy + do homage to the Pope→ the
exploitation by Rome began + Italian nominees got several benefices ↔ Langton
First Barons’ War – Stephan Langton was their leader
- sources: John de Erley (the squire of William the Marshal)
- reasons: John demanded heavy taxes and service because of the war with France
- Langton produced the Charter – it was discussed with John at Runnymede→ draft which
remained for us→ Magna Charta/Articles of the Barons
- a system of checks and balances
- custom and law must stand even above the King (feudal law and customs)
- the rights of the tenants-in-chiefs (barons)
- any man shall be entitled to trial by the due process of the law
- the assizes were to be held more often
- standard weights
- the liberty of the Church was to be respected – free lay interference
- the liberty of the towns was to be respected
- protection of the merchants
- tax could be imposed only with the assent of Curia Regis
- 25-member committee was to check whether the king observed the law
- resistance clause
- barons invited Louis, Philip’s son, and his army + Alexander (Scot), Llewellyn (Prince of
North Wales)
- Louis was brought in by the Londoners, captured Farnham, Winchester, Portchester,
Southampton
- 1217, Battle of Lincoln/Fair of Lincoln: barons and Louis were defeated→ left Eng.
- the town, including London, were mainly against the king
- Cinque Ports (Hastings, Dover, Sandwich, Romney, Hythe + later Rye, Winchelsea) were in
enemy hands
- king’s support: strong body of mercenaries who plundered everywhere, some of the greatest
warrior nobles (e.g. William the Marshal)
- he reached Rochester, Dover, Nottingham (1215), York (1216), punished the Scottish
king, then he marched south imposing massive fines on his opponents
- 1216: he became ill (dysentery)→ died
- his heir was his son, Henry (9-year-old) – he was crowned by the aid of Guala, the Papal
Legate, and William the Marshal (he took on the Regency)
Henry III (1216-1272)
- first period was ruled by Regency
- king’s men:
- William the Marshal: Justiciar (the chief political and judicial officer during the Norman
and the Plantagenet dynasty), he died in 1220
- Stephen Langton: Archbishop of Canterbury, builder of the rights of Englishmen against
royal, baronial, and even ecclesiastical pretensions
- Hubert de Burgh: soldier, politician, Justiciar
- 1232: driven from power by a small palace clique
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- leader of the clique: Peter des Roches, Bishop of Winchester, his rival
- 1227: he became of age
- married Eleanor of Provence→ spent money about French claims
- war with France→ 1259, treaty in Paris: Henry did homage to Louis IX
Second Barons’ War
- leaders:Richard the Marshal, Simon de Montfort(Earl of Leicester, Henry’s son-in-law)
- alliance with Prince Llewellyn
- grievances:
- the Household offices were occupied increasingly by foreign intruders e.g. Poitevins,
Savoyards (Household offices –largely dependent on royal will–began to overshadow the
traditional offices like Justiciarship, Exchequer, Chancery)
- the members of the Great Council were chosen by the king
- results:
- 1234: Henry dismissed the Poitevin officials, and Burgh was restored to his lands
- 1258: Provisions of Oxford: written in French, English, Latin
- establishment of a Council of Fifteen – standing organ of government to carry on the
administration in the king’s name, it should be chosen not by the king (to advise the
king, authority to amend and redress laws, authority over the Justiciar, they could
assemble parliament)
- the word Parliament appeared (from Norman French), it was a direct development of
the Curia Regis – three P/Great Council a year should be organized
Curia Regis: Great Council, Exchequer, central courts – its head is the Justiciar
- restored the traditional officers – all revenues paid into the Exchequer
- 1259: Provisions of Westminster (committee supervising the Exchequer)
- Henry sent his son, Edward into exile, because he sympathised with Montfort
- 1262: Richard de Clare, Earl of Gloucester, Henry’s great supporter, died – his son,
Gilbert de Clare came over to Montfort for a while, but he remained royalist
- 1264, Lewes: Montfort’s victory→ captured Edward→ he ruled in England in the name of
the king – BUT: Gilbert de Clare and some others deserted him→ his position weakened
- 1265: Montfort assembled the curia Regis (only thanes), and he extended the assembly with
2-2 knights per shires and 2-2 burgess per towns→ 1. House of Commons
- Edward escaped→ united the baronial party by his side→ reaction against Montfort
- 1265, Evesham: Montfort was defeated and died
- his followers, the Disinherited, were deprived of their properties, became outlaws
Edward I (1272-1307)
- he loved his wife, Eleanor of Castile (she died early)
- 1270: Crusade
- 4 knights from each shire and burgesses were made to swear loyalty to the king→ 1275:
parliament for legislative and fiscal matters
Anti-Semitism
- 1275, the Statute of the Jewry: it regulated the moneylenders’ activity, confined the usury,
all Jews should dwell in the King’s own cities and boroughs, wear a distinguishing mark on
their outer garment (yellow felt), pay a tax of three pence
- the Jews emigrated→ the bankers of Florence and Siena took their plce
War with France
- Philip IV the Fair was the French king (1285-1314)
- surrender of the English garrisons in Gascony→ needed more money→ assembled the
Parliament – conflict between him and the barons (Walter of Guisborough’s accounts)→
earls, barons marched into London→ Edward I accepted some principles:
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- King had no right to despatch the feudal host wherever he might choose→ the root of the
transformation of the military system from the Saxon and feudal basis of occasional
service to paid regular troops
+ new type of infantry – archery (South Wales: long-bow)
- King could not impose taxation without consent
- 1285, Statute of Winchester
- 1299: he was forced to marry Margaret, Philip’s daughter
Parliament:
- 1295: ‘Model Parliament’ – the bicameral assembly (extended curia Regis)
- House of Lords (earls-barons, prelates) – House of Commons
- established a documented and efficient administrative process, made clear laws
State:
- Robert Burnell, his Chancellor and chief advisor, Bishop of Bath and Wells (1292: Ø)
- 1274: searching inquiry into local administration in order to remove corruption
- 3 departments of specialized administration:
- Exchequer: received most of the revenue, kept accounts
- Chancery: general secretariat responsible for the writing and drafting of royal charters,
writs, and letters
- Wardrobe (its separate secretariat was the Privy Seal) attached to the ever-moving royal
household, combined financial and secretarial functions
Wales:
- Edward I took the first great step towards the unification of the Island
- constrained the privileges of the Marcher lords
- established a base at Chester, set up a communication line in the coast + he attacked on sea
- local jealousies were always stronger than any claim of Welsh unity
- 1282: Llewellyn II and his brother Dafydd attacked – unsuccessful
- 1284, treaty at Aberconway: Wales was organized on the English county system:
Anglesey, Carnarvon, Merioneth, Cardigan, Carmarthen shires
- 1284, the Statute of Rhuddlan: Edward proclaimed himself as the conqueror of the Welsh
- 1301: Edward I’s son, Edward became the first English Prince of Wales
Scotland:
- 1286: Alexander III made his 3-year-old daughter, Margaret, his heir (Maid of Norway)
- she was intended to marry Edward I’s son, Edward
- 1290: Margaret died→ struggles in connection with the succession (e.g. John Balliol and
Robert Bruce) – splitting of Scotland into rival kingships→ Edward I was called upon to
decide for one candidate
- 1292: Edward I pronounced in favour of John Balliol
- Scottish baronage accepted, but furnished the new king with an authoritative council of 12
great lords
- the Scottish allied with Philip IV (he attacked England at the same time)
- Edward marched on Berwick, Edinburgh, Perth, Stirling
- William Wallace rose to lead the Scottish rebellion
- 1297, Stirling Bridge: Warenne (Edward’s commander) was defeated→ evacuated the
greater part of Scotland, they could barely hold the line of the Tweed
- Edward was forced to quit his campaign in France
- 1298, Falkirk: Edward I’s victory – it was not until 1305 that Wallace was captured
- Robert the Bruce became the king
- 1306: Bruce was defeated→ fled to Rathlin Island→ spider-story→ came back to fight
Edward II (1307-1327)
- married Isabella, Philip IV’s daughter
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English History I
- his favourite: Piers Gaveston, a son of a Gascon knight
- Edward II made him Earl of Cornwall, when he went to France to marry he left him as
‘Keeper of the realm’ etc
- barons’ party attacked him→ Edward II had to banish him
- Ordinance of 1311 (41 articles): King was not to leave the realm without the consent of
the barons, was not to appoint a keeper of the realm, was not to appoint whomsoever
he whished as senior officials, and the officials had to take an oath to uphold the Ord.
- when Gaveston returned he was killed→ Edward’s insanity
Scotland:
- the war continued with Bruce→ 1314, Bannockburn: Edward II’s defeat→ Scotland
regained its independence
State – administration:
- 1315: famine for 3 years + disorganization, struggles
- ‘Lords Ordainers’: committee of 21 lays, represented the baronial and ecclesiastical interests
- leader: Thomas Lancaster (Edward I’s nephew)
- aim: more control of the inner cabinet of the King’s advisers – the King’s Wardrobe (ever
growing influence)
- Edward I’s death, Edward II’s failure at Bannockburn→ barons gained power and control
- Lancaster got into a chief position – had control of the country’s administration – the
moderates became disgusted with Lancaster’s incompetence and with the weakness into
which the process of Government had sunk→ joined with the royalists
- ‘middle party’: led by Earl of Pembroke
- included bishops
- carried out a great reform of the royal Household
- royalist party – 2 Hugh Despensers (father and son)
- the younger Hugh Despenser took Gaveston’s place→ unpopular among the Marcher lords
and the Lancastrian party→ they leagued, but Edward II defeated them
- conspiracy against Edward II
- Edward’s wife, Isabella + Roger Mortimer, Marcher lord, and her lover – they went to
France and plotted the King’s downfall
- she betrothed his son, Edward (III) to Philippa of Hainault in return for soldiers
- Isabella and Roger Mortimer’s invasion→ imprisoned and killed Edward II in Berkeley
Castle in 1327→ Edward III was crowned
Edward III (1327-77)
- in the first period, Roger Mortimer was the ruler of England
- 1328, ‘Shameful Treaty of Northampton’: King recognized Robert the Bruce as King of
Scotland (Lanercost Chronicle)
- royal intermarriage: Edward III’s sister, Joan of the Tower ♥ David, Bruce’s son
- Mortimer’s quarrel with the barons
- Henry of Lancaster (Thomas’s brother)→ 1328: he ravaged the lands of Lancaster
- Edmund Woodstock, Earl of Kent (he was the supporter of both Mortimer and
Lancaster)→ he was deceived that Edward II was still alive→ he tried to restore him
to liberty in 1330→ he was executed
- 1330: Mortimer was hanged, Isabella was condemned to perpetual captivity
Scotland:
- 1329: Robert the Bruce Ø→ David II, his son
- 1332: Edward Balliol, John Balliol’s son who fled to England, defeated David who fled to
France→ Balliol became the king
- 1333: Edward III attacked→ acquired Berwickshire and the whole of south eastern Scotland
- France encouraged the Scots in rebellion against England
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English History I
- 1388, Otterburn: Scots’ victory – James Douglas (Earl Douglas)
- 1402, Humbleton Hill: English victory (Scottish Earl Douglas’s son)
Hundred Years’ War (1339-1453)
- 1348: Black Death struck for the first time
- 1360: the plague returned, albeit in a weaker form
TUDOR DYNASTY
Henry VII (1485-1509)
Sources: Polydore Vergil (Archdeacon of Wells): Anglica Historia
- he was Welsh, a member of the House of Lancaster, his father was Edmund Tudor, Earl of
Richmond
- his wife: Elizabeth of York (Edward IV’s daughter) – 8 children
- stagnant population: before the plague 4-5 million→ now only 2,25 million
- conspiracies against him
- the Court of Burgundy was a centre – Duchess was Richard III’s sister
- Perkin Warbeck – backed by Yorkist nobles in Ireland, Burgundy, Scots→ Ø
- Ireland: Yorkist party (Fitzeralds) ↔ Lancastrians (Butlers)
Scotland:
- Scotland alliance between France
- 1502: royal intermarriage→ Margaret (Henry’s daughter) ♥ James IV (1488-1513)
France:
- the French king didn’t want to face Spain, Holy Roman Emperor, and England
simultaneously→ paid tribute to Henry
- Spain and England worked together→ Arthur (Henry’s son) ♥ Infanta Catherine
(Ferdinand and Isabella’s daughter) in 1501, but Arthur died→ Arthur’s brother, Henry ♥
Catherine of Aragon in 1509
State:
- he strived for total, unrestricted ascendancy
- 1485: formed the Yeomen of the Guard
- 1496: Cabot explored North America
- 1496: weights and measures were standardized
Norman Davies: The Isles: A history
Stewards: Scottish
- their name’s stems from the hereditary stewards of the royal court
- they took control of Scotland in the course of troubled succession to Robert the Bruce
- Robert II Stewart (1371-84), Bruce’s grandson, Guardian of the Realm during
David II’s long captivity, and acceded him to the throne
- Robert III (1384-1406)
- James V (1513-42) – married two high-born French women→ French dimension
- Mary Stewart (1542-67)
- her mother was a French queen→ she and her son, James, spelled their names in French→
‘Stuart’
- ♥ Francois II, King of France (1); Henry Stewart, her cousin (2); Earl of Bothwell (3)
- she fled to England, threw herself to Elizabeth’s mercy→ under arrest for 18 years→
involved herself in a Catholic plot→ died on the scaffold
- James VI (1567-1625) – became English king
Tudors: Welsh
- Owain ap Maredudd ap Tudwr/Owain, the son of Meredith, the son of Tudor (15th c.) joined
Henry V’s army, served in Queen’s household – his name became Owain Tudor (his
grandfather’s Christian name was Theodore)
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- c. 1432: he married the widowed Catherine de Valois (Henry V’s wife)→ 2 sons: Jasper,
Edmund
- Jasper Tudor, Earl of Pembroke – Lancastrians’ supporter, Henry VI’s kinsman
- Edmund Tudor, Earl of Richmond – Henry VI’s supporter, his son was Henry
War of Roses:
1461: Henry VI was overthrown by the Yorkist Edward Plantagenet→ Edward IV
1470: Edward was dethroned, but reinstated after the Battle of Tewkesbury (Henry VI’s sole
son was killed in this battle, and then Henry was also murdered)→ Henry Tudor was
sent into exile to Brittany (had retinue of Lancastrian refugees)
1483: Edward IV died, his son, Edward V (1483), was murdered in the Tower of London by
his uncle, Richard III (1483-85)
1485: Henry Tudor went to England in order to get the throne (supported by Jasper, French
king, Lancastrians refugees, Scots)
Bosworth: Henry’s victory, he found the crown on a thornbush
Parliament:
Irish P:
- its competence was limited to the Pale
- members: gentry of the shires, burgesses, lower clergy
- 15th century – way to near independence under the patronage of Gerald Fitzgerald, Earl of
Kildare, BUT Henry VII reasserted English authority (1495 – statute by Sir Edward
Poynings: invalidated all Irish legislation not previously approved in England)
Scottish P:
- a baronial council in origin – never produced a second chamber!
- 1560s: creation of a Presbyterian Kirk→ Kirk’s General Assembly was a sort of
unofficial substitute for a lower chamber
- 1707: merger of the Edinburgh and Westminster p.
English P:
- 1346: the Commons won the right to a separate chamber – gain a position of near parity with
the House of Lords
- Lancastrians used the Commons against their rivals in the Lords
- 1399: Lancastrians removed Richard II in conjunction with P
- 1407: Henry V accepted that the king couldn’t amend the draft of a Commons bill (only
approve or reject)
- 1429: the pattern of 2 knights per shire and 2 burgesses per boroughs was established
- seats at the end of the Tudor period: 462
- House of Lords
- 1387, Letters Patent: creation of baronies→ hereditary secular peerage
- 1516: excluded the spiritual peers
- 1540: abolition of the abbots
- 1485-1529: once in every 3 years
- as from 1529: almost every single year – Henry VIII used it to execute the Anglican
Reformation, Elizabeth I used it to execute her ecclesiastical settlement
- Act of Restraint (1533), Act of Supremacy (1534), incorporation of Wales (1536), the
‘kinging’ of Ireland (1541), Act of Uniformity (1558)
TUDOR PERIOD:
- its regime was monarchical, centralization + cruelty, repression
- elimination of feudal magnates
- replacement of local institutions by all the manifold instruments of Tudor government
- humanism: William Grocyn, Thomas Linacre, John Colet of Oxford, Thomas More
- 1476: William Caxton’s press at Westminster
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- foundation of Corpus Christi College at Oxford
- agriculture: engrossment, enclosure
Henry VII (1485-1509)
- pretenders: Lambert Simnel (crowned in Dublin), Perkin Warbeck (1479)
- married Elizabeth of York (Edward IV’s daughter)
- tamed the barons, calmed the Church, established an efficient legal and financial system,
conducted an energetic policy in France and Spain
- 1503: his daughter, Margaret ♥ James IV of Scotland
- 1487-1641: Court of Star Chamber: authority for asserting both criminal and civil
jusirdiction, and enabled to proceed and act without regard for the common law
Henry VIII (1509-47)
- 1543, Treaty of Greenwich: Margaret Tudor’s infant granddaughter, Mary Stewart was
offered to Edward, infant Tudor prince
- 1544-45: Henry invaded Scotland twice in order to put the Treaty into effect
- wife: Catherine of Aragon→ Mary, Anna Boleyn→ Elizabeth, Jane Seymour→ Edward,
Catherine Howard, Anna Cleves – ‘the Flanders Mare’
- 1513, Battle of the Spurs/ Battle of Guinegatte: Henry helped with Austrian mercenaries
defeated the French army (his aim, to reconquer Bordeaux, Gascony, was not realized)
- 1513: Scots warriors invaded England→ Battle of Flodden Field→ England’s victory→
James IV died→ James V – his mother, the Regent, was Henry’s sister, Margaret→ peace
- war with France→ 1529, treaty of Cateau-Cambresis: Charles V, Francis I, Henry VIII
- his chief servant: Thomas Wolsey – he got an absolute power
- Archbishop of York, Papal Legate→ he sat above the ecclesiastical authority as a Cardinal
- Lord Chancellor and Chief Councillor (1515-30)
- 1530-40: the administration of Thomas Cromwell
- 1536: Act for the Union of England and Wales→ the Kingdom of England was renamed
‘Kingdom of England and Wales’
- 13 counties, since 1543 English common law instead of Welsh or marcher law, the
privileges of Marcher Lords were abolished
- 1541: Ireland became kingdom, England and Ireland lived in union under the Tudors
Reformation:
- John Wyclif: Oxford theologian and philosopher
- denounced the absolute power of the Papacy, the luxury of the clergy, the key doctrine of
transubstantiation – On the Truth of Holy Writ, On the Eucharist, translation of the Bible
into English
- his followers: ‘Lollards’
- 1401: Henry IV’s statute→ punishing heresy with burning
- 1414: Sir John Oldcastle’s rebellion linked Lollardy with treason→ became unpopular
Henry VIII (1509-47)
- Assertio Septem Sacramentorum – anti-Lutheran tract→ gained the title of ‘Defender of the
Faith’ from the Pope
- divorce between Catherine of Aragon and him was not allowed by Pope→ schism
- the wealth of the Church was divided among Henry’s sycophants
- 1529-36: Reformation Parliament: Thomas Cromwell – his aim was to demonstrate that
England is a ‘sovereign empire’, and these laws turn to an older, purer system
- 1533: Act of Restraint of Appeals
- 1534: Act for Ecclesiastical Appointment, Act concerning Peter’s Pence, Act of
Supremacy – the monarch is the head of the English Church (Thomas More denied it→
executed in 1535)
- 1536: Act of Dissolution of the Monasteries→ 1536: Pilgrimage of Grace (against the law)
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→ the religious nonconformity became treason against the monarch
- others: John Bale – ex-friar, historian, archivist, chief mentor of John Foxe, John Foxe –
Protestant propagandist: Book of Martyrs (1563)
- resistance: - Ireland – Ulster – beyond the Pale
- Thomas More: Lord Chancellor (1529-32), Catholic→ persued heretics,
opposed Henry’s divorce→ he was executed in 1535
Edward VI (1547-53)
- Thomas Cranmer, Henry’s Archbishop of Canterbury
- he prepared the groundwork for more thoroughgoing Protestant reforms
- Book of Common Prayer (1549, 1553), Ordinal (1550)→ standard form of church service
- 1553: Forty-two Articles of Religion
- William Tyndale’s Bible translation was permitted
Mary I (1553-58)
- violent Catholic reaction – the daughter of the Catholic Catherine of Aragon
- burnings (e.g. Cranmer), exile
Elizabeth (1558-1603)
- 1559: Elizabethan Settlement of Religion – compromise between Cath. and Prot.
- she became the Supreme Governor of the Church
- 1559, Act of Uniformity (introduced the uniform Protestant liturgy and Anglican Prayer
Book), Act of Exchange (the king could handle the benefices in the case of vacancy)
- 1563: Thirty-nine Articles (included most of Cronmer’s 42)
→ several radical Puritan and conservative Catholic martyrs were put to death
Scotland:
- it remained staunchly Catholic
- BUT: change in 1560: the Catholic Mary Stewart (1542-67) was absent in France
- John Knox (Scottish Calvinist)
- 1558: First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment of Women
- persuaded Church to break with Rome, to rule the Church trough a General Assembly,
to introduce an Anglo-Genevan liturgy→ First Book of Discipline (1560)
- 1567: Mary was driven into exile in England – Mary’s son, James VI was allowed to
succeed under the close guardianship of the Protestant nobles + deep division between the
Catholic and Protestant fractions
- Church of Scotland didn’t reach a precise definition of its relations to the State – the
pendulum always swung back and forth
- 1572, Settlement of Leith: interim compromise→ bishops were to be nominated by the
crown, but were to answer in spiritual matters to the General Assembly of the Kirk
- Andrew Melville – Scots divine who learned his religion in Huguenot France + in Geneva
- became the spokesman of Presbyterian Party, converting several Scots to Calvinism
- ‘Melvillianism’: theory of ‘Two Kingdoms’ – separation of Church and State→ 1578:
The Second Book of Discipline
- 1584, Black Acts: subjected the clergy to the crown
- 1592, Golden Act: confirmed the privileges of the Kirk, but didn’t repeal the previous
legislation→ messy ambiguity
Ireland: remained largely Catholic→ separated from England and Scotland
Mary I (1553-58)
- married Philip II of Spain (‘Spanish bogey got growing at that time)
- Spain drag England into a war with France→ 1557: England lost Calais
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English History I
Elizabeth (1558-1603)
- important persons: Robert Dudley – Earl of Leicester, William Cecil – Lord Burghley, his
son, Robert Cecil – Earl of Salisbury, Sir John and Robert Carey
- with the help of Robert Cecil, as principal secretary, she became independent of
Parliamentarian taxation
- Spain:
- English pirates plundered Spanish property with her approval (Francis Drake, John
Hawkins)
- 1585: English intervention in the Revolt of the Netherlands against Spain
- 1587: Mary’s execution
- 3 great armadas against England: 1588, 1596, 1597 – unsuccessful
- Scotland:
- 1586: her chief minister, Lord Burghley, negotiated the terms of an Anglo-Scottish
treaty→ Treaty of Berwick: set England and Scotland on the same anti-Spanish course
(paid James VI a pension of 4000 pounds)
- 1603: her death + Earl of Tyrone’s submission (campaign against the crown)→ union de
facto (not de jure)
Trade:
- 1497, from Bristol: Venetian Giovanni Cabot→ North America
- 1553-54: Hugh Willoughby tried to find the north-eastern passage to China→ found Ivan the
Terrible→ he founded the Muscovy Company (1555)
- companies: Eastland Company, Spanish Company (1577), Turkey Company (1581), East
India Company (1600) etc.
- mercantilism: ensure a foreign trade surplus, protect the state’s stock of bullion and coin
- Thomas Mun – director of the East India Company
- 1566: London’s Royal Exchange – Sir Thomas Gresham
- Price Revolution→ monetary crises
- 1562: Elizabeth’s reformed coinage
- 1562-63: Sir John Hawkins, one of Elizabeth’s leading naval administrators, tried to muscle
in on the closed Spanish slave trade – he called for England to find colonies
- 1577-81: Francis Drake sailed round the world
- 1587: wrecking of the Spanish fleet at Cadiz
- colonization: not successful under the Tudor Age
- Walter Raleigh’s vain attempt to plant a colony on Roanoke Island
- 1587: colonies in Virginia
- 1595: Raleigh’s expedition to Guiana (‘El Dorado’) – he returned only with tobacco-plant
James I (1603-25)
- James VI – Scottish king
- James was crowned King of England, Ireland, and France at Westminster Abbey
- French connections: his mother was French Queen (Mary ♥ Francois II)
- his wife: Anne of Denmark (secret Catholic)
- well-educated, poet (Basilikon Doron; Trewe Law of Free Monarchies – 1598, Counterblast
to Tobacco – 1604)
- bisexual→ gave political preference to his loved man: George Villiers (first Duke of
Buckingham) – he conducted England
- financial problems (James was spendthrift) – his lord Treasurer was Robert Cecil
- his aim: unify Scotland with England (‘Great Britain’ – unus Rex, unus Grex, una Lex) ↔
English and Scots Parliament→ unsuccessful
- 1604: decree pronouncing himself to be ‘King of Great-Britain, France, and Ireland’,
decree creating a common Anglo-Scottish currency
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English History I
- 1606: decree ordering all the ships of England and Scotland to fly a common flag (‘Great
Union’ – ‘Union Jack’)
- 1606-7 P: repeal of hostile laws in both kingdoms, mutual naturalization of the King’s
English and Scottish subjects, free trade, Anglo-Scottish extradition treaty→ refused
- middle course in religion (he was Protestant)
- Millenary Petition – the petition of the puritans→ 1604, Hampton Court Conference:
amendment of the Anglican liturgy, new translation of the Bible (1611)
- 1604: peace with Spain→ indignity for the radical Catholics
- 1605, Powder Treason/Gunpowder Plot: Catholic plot – Robert Catesby (Guy Fawkes was
caught red-handed)
- 1605: Francis Bacon – Advancement of Learning
- 1607: comet (after a century, Edmund Halley ascertained that this comet turned up in 1066,
1531, 1607, 1682)
Charles I (1625-49)
- married Mary Henrietta, Henry IV’s daughter (Charles promised Louis XIII to emancipate
the Catholics)
Ecclesiastical matters – discord:
- England: ‘Broad Church’ (‘High’ – sympathy with Catholicism, ‘Low’ – with Calvinism)
- Archbishop George Abbot – moderation
- William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury since 1633 – anti-Calvinist, anti-Puritan
- his circle were dubbed ‘Arminian’, patronized by Duke of Buckingham + royal
support (Star Chamber’s sentences→ William Prynne, Henry Burton’s punishment)
- aim: liturgical reform (revival of Catholic-style), maintenance of uniformity
- 1620: some English Puritans, ‘Pilgrim Fathers’, sailed to Massachusetts in the Mayflower
- Ireland: - Catholic dominance
- Presbyterian minority in Ulster (militancy)
- Thomas Wentworth, Earl of Strafford, was Lord Deputy from 1633 in Ireland
- created an efficient administration – considerable military potential
- supported Laud’s liturgical reforms and the toleration of Catholic recusancy→
alienated the ‘New English’
- supported the scheme for a new plantation→ alienated the ‘Old English’
- alienated the Protestant colonists of Ulster
- didn’t alienated only the Catholic Gaels
→ he returned to England
- Scotland: Presbyterian establishment + Roman Catholic elements in Highlands
- James I wanted to remodel the Kirk on Anglican lines (Episcopalian hierarchy)→ several
Scots Presbyterians emigrated to Ulster
- 1618: Five Articles of Perth
- no General Assembly was called for 20 years after 1618
- religious crisis
- Charles I: ‘surrender and re-grant’ policy→ he revoked the rights of ownership of all
beneficiaries from grants of Church land
- heavy taxation
- 1636: Charles issued a set of Church canons without agreement of the Kirk
- 1637: he invented to impose a new Scottish Prayer Book & liturgy prepared by Laud→
riot across the country
→ signing the Scottish National Covenant in 1638
- 1638, General Assembly in Glasgow: abolished the Five Articles, the Canons, the new
Prayer Book, the Bench of Bishops
→ 1639: war with England: ‘the First Bishops’ War’ or ‘the Wars of the Three Kingdom’
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English History I
Wars with the three kingdoms (1639-51)
Scotland: Covenanters (e.g. Campbells of Argyll) ↔ royalists (Catholic Macdonalds) –
clan warfare
- 1639: Covenanters seized Aberdeen
- 1639, Duns Law: Charles’s army ↔ superiority of Scottish army→ Treaty of Berwick
- 1640: Second Bishops’ War/Second War of the Covenant
- Army of Covenanters crossed the Tweed, defeat English army at Newburn, seized
Newcastle-upon-Tyne→ Treaty of Ripon
- Scottish Parliament’s decisions: excluded royal ministers, right to vet all executive
appointments to both the Privy Council and to the bench of judges, Triennial Act!
- 1644: Irish Catholic force landed in Scotland→ its victory at Tippermuir, sack of Aberdeen
- 1645, Philiphaugh: Leslie’s main army stopped them
- 164?, Dundee: sack by General George Monck
Ireland:
- Hugh O’Neill’s rebellion→ Nine Years War – defeat at Kinsale→ 1603: Treaty of Mellifont
- several English settlers was driven from their lands
- 1607: great plantation of English Protestants began in Ulster, foundation of new towns e.g.
Belfast→ the lands of former rebels were redistributed + the native Irish would be
eliminated or marginalized (segregated into reservations on the worst land)
- the leaseholders should have constructed military defences (principal leaseholders were
English, the mass of tenants were Scots)
- new type: Ulstermen – state within the state
- 1641: plot – Sir Phelim O’Neill (they regarded themselves royalist, Catholic)
- Dublin (betrayed), Ulster
- 1641: Catholic Confederation (Ulster Catholics + Old English)→ Irish Rebellion of 1641
against the Protestant Plantation
- their victory at Julianstown Bridge
- Protestant Scots army was sent by the Covenanters in Ulster against the rebels
- 1642-49: nobody could achieve anything
- Lord Lieutenant, Earl of Ormonde, formed a wide coalition in the name of the King,
support of toleration in religion
- 1645, Sligo: destruction by Sir Charles Coote
- 1649: Cromwell’s campaign in Ireland→ bloodshed e.g. Drogheda (confiscating the
Catholic land, converting everybody to Protestant)
King – Parliament:
- from 1540: the Star Chamber encompassed both the Privy Council (executive) and the Chief
Justices (judiciary)
- 17th century: Absolutism of the King (divine right of kings)
- the king ruled more commonly by decree than by statute
- he could declare martial law
- he could summon or dissolve Parliament – no freedom of speech
- there was no Habeas Corpus
- prerogatives
- 1614, Addled Parliament: fierce argument between Lords and Commons over parliamentary
privileges→ king had to dissolve it before any subsidies had been granted
- 1624, Monopolies Act: declared all existing monopolies void (it was one of the most
important royal revenues)
- 1625-26: Buckingham tried to supplicate money from Parliament for his wars with Spain
(Cadiz, 1625) and France (Rhe Island, 1627) (he was the Admiral of the English fleet)→
Commons’ indignity because of the failures→ the king dissolved both Parliaments
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English History I
- 1628: John Felton soldier killed Buckingham
- 1628, Petition of Right: the Parliament wanted to define and to limit the royal prerogative→
Charles accepted it, and ignored it
- Francis Bacon (defender of prerogative) ↔ Sir Edward Coke, Attorney General (drafted
the Petition, critical about the 11 prerogative courts) – Institutes of the Laws of England
(1628)
- 1629-1640: Charles didn’t assemble the P
- but he needed money→ revive an old levy on port towns in lieu of the supply of ships –
‘Ship Money’, and he extended it to all towns across the country
- 1640, April-May: Short Parliament – dissolved because of the grievances
- 1640-60: Long Parliament
- Root and Branch Petition from the City of London: called for the abolition of episcopacy +
a catalogue of 28 grievances of Puritans
- impeachment of Laud and Stafford (Wentworth)
- 1641, Triennial Act: P in there years + act against dissolving P without its consent
- acts: diminishing of royal prerogative, abolishment of ship money, of the Court of High
Commission
- 1641 Dec: ‘Grand Remonstrance on the State of the Kingdom’ by John Pym MP
- 204 articles against Popery (Popish Party, bishops in P etc.)
- 1642 Jan: Charles arrested the Five Members in Westminster Hall – Pym, Hampden,
Holles, Haselrig, Strode→ he finally released them, and fled from London→ Civil War
First Civil War (1642-46):
- both King and P called their supporter to arms in order to crush the Irish rebellion
- P issued the Militia Ordinance→ Charles issued a proclamation forbidding his subjects to
join the parliamentary militia
- royalist party – ‘Cavaliers’ (Spanish caballero = knight, horseman)
- feudal gentry supporting Spanish-style Absolutism, quasi-Catholic religious practices
- base: North, West Country, Wales – headquarters in Oxford
- Parliamentary party – ‘Roundheads’ (close-cropped style of haircut preferred by Puritans)
- urban middle classes
- solid base in London
- Puritan Independents (Congregationalists), Presbyterians, Levellers, Diggers (Gerard
Winstanley)
- Puritan’s surge in Parliament: career of Cromwell, rising influence in army, English P’s
alliance with the Scots Covenanters
- military politics→ growing split between the politicians and the professional soldiers
- Oliver Cromwell: military officer, formation of New Model Army (‘Ironsides’) in 1645,
leaned more to the Congregationalists than to Presbyterians
- 1644, Self-Denying Ordinance: forbade anyone from being simultaneously both an MP
and a military commander→ turned P generals into a separate political force
- 1643, Solemn League and Covenant: P’s alliance with the Scots Covenanters
- Scots demanded that Church of England adopt Presbyterianism – all bishops be dismissed
- help of the Scottish army under Alexander Leslie
- 1643, Edgehill
- 1644, Marston Moor: Cromwell’s victory↔Prince Rupert→secured North of England for P
- 1645, Naseby: Cromwell’s victory ↔ Prince Rupert
- 1645, Langport: the King’s Western Army Ø→ Charles yielded→ into the custody of the
Scots→ Scots delivered him to the English P
Second Civil War (1648-49):
- 1648: royalist revolts, principally at Colchester→ broke out the 2. civil war
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English History I
- unity of P began to crumble
- Parliamentary army: John Lilburne’s harangues (Levellers)
- arguments between Presbyterians and Independents over the fate of the King
→ Colonel Thomas Pride purged the dissident MPs (Covenanters’ Presbyterian partners)→
execution of the King
→ the Scots parted company with the English P, because they didn’t wanted to commit
regicide
- 1650: the Scots crowned Charles II in Edinburgh→ Cromwell marched north
- 1650, Dunbar: Cromwell annihilated the Army of Covenant
- 1651, Worcester: C destroyed another Scots and royalists army→ Charles II had to flee
The English Commonwealth (1649-54) – Cromwell’s conduct
- legislature: Rump (purged P 1649-53) – executive: Council of State – the residual power was
held by the Army Council headed by Henry Ireton (Cromwell’s son-in-law)
- tensions between the army and the Rump
- Cromwell rose to the top of the army command (Commander-in-Chief)
- Cromwell withdrew all Union flags together with the royal standard
- English army put in control of new territories (Scot-, Ireland) where P had no competence
- political solutions imposed by army on the conquered countries caused only controversy
- Ireland – declared part of the Commonwealth, it cemented the Protestant ascendancy
- Scotland: Scottish monarchy and P were stated to be redundant, heavy taxation
- 1657: Council of State issued an Ordinance of Union
- free trade in Scotland, but not in Ireland
- Scotland sent 50 members to an enlarged Westminster assembly
- union flag: quarter 1 and 4 – cross of St George, 2 – lion of Scotland, 3 – Irish harp
- 1650, 1651: Navigation Acts (gave English merchants monopoly over imports)→ First
Dutch War (1652-54)
- 1653: C dissolved the Rump, and replaced the Council of State by a Council of Officers→ it
issued an Instrument of Government declaring C to be the Lord Protector
- an appointed assembly was convened – Barebones Parliament: dismissed after 5 months
- John Milton (writer) served as Latin secretary to the government
The British Republic (1654-60)
- 1655: - major conflagration in the Scottish Highlands
- minor royalist conflagration in Wiltshire – John Penruddock
→ introduction a system of military rule – ‘Major-Generals’ (1655-58)
- one senior officer administered each of 10, later 11, regions
- 1655: ‘Barbary Pirates’
- 1655: conquered Jamaica
- 1655: Cromwell readmitted the Jews to England
- 1656-58: war with Spain (C’s alliance with France)→ Battle of Dunes – C’s victory
- 1658: Oliver Cromwell passed away→ his son, Richard Cromwell became the Lord
Protector, but he couldn’t cope with the problems→ he retired (1659)
- 1659: convocation of the residue of the Rump
- financial problems + bad harvest, rising prices
- conflict between the army and Rump
- commotion of religious radicals – Quakers (George Fox), Levellers, Independents (John
Bunyan – organized an illegal conventicler, wrote Pilgrim’s Process – 1678)
→ George Monck, commander of the English army in Scotland, dissolved the Rump
- 1660 Jan: Monck with his army marched into London
- re-convening of the Long Parliament, proclaiming the restoration of 2-chamber P
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English History I
- 1660 Feb-March: Long P: Monck was Commander-in-Chief, heavy taxation in order to pay
off the army’s arrears, taking the local militias away from the radicals, then dissolved itself
Restoration
- 1660 Apr-May, Convention Parliament: both chambers were strongly monarchist
- 1660 May, Declaration of Breda: Charles II proclaimed a general pardon and amnesty,
promised to observe the P, accept the principle of religious toleration
- British Republic was voted down, P statutes since 1641 were declared void
- Act of Indemnity and Oblivion for crimes during the Interregnum
- Act for Judicial Proceedings: confirmed the validity of all voluntary land sales –
confiscated Church and crown land were repossessed
- 1661: Charles II was crowned as King of England, Ireland and France
Charles II (1649/1660-85):
- the surviving regicides were executed
- army was disbanded
- 1660: foundation of the Lord General’s Lifeguard of Horse
- 1664: the Corps of Royal Marines
- 1682: Royal Hospital at Chelsea
- religion – the toleration wasn’t implemented
- no question of Catholic toleration in spite of their royalist devotion
- restoration of episcopacy of Anglican Church→ disabled all dissenting Protestants→
English Nonconformity parted company decisively with Anglicanism (+popular anger
against radical religious ‘fanatics’)
- 1662: Royal Society – scientific society
- 1661-79: Cavalier Parliament
- 1661-65, Clarendon Code (4 acts): severely restricted all dissenters
(Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon: royalist leader in the Long P, Charles I’s civilian
adviser, Charles II’s chief minister, Lord Lieutenant, dismissed in 1667→ exile)
- Corporation Act (1661): only those people who took communion in the English
Church could be elected to the town council + all office-holders had to swear the
threefold oaths of allegiance, supremacy, and non-resistance
- Act of Uniformity (1662): reinstated the Book of Common Prayer, and the Thirty-nine
Articles – clergymen had to sign it (c. 2000 clerks didn’t sign it because of 4 articles),
every clergymen had to be ordained by a bishop
- Conventicle Act (1664): nobody could invite more than 5 people to his public worship
– it was sharpened in 1669
- Five Mile Act (1665): the dissenter clergymen mustn’t live within less than 5 miles
from his previous parish or corporate town
- Scotland: Charles II was recrowned (1661), episcopacy reinstated, Scottish P made up for a
decade→ 4000 acts
- religion: SP opted for Anglican-style settlement (↔ Scots Presbyterians)
→ illegal conventicles multiplied, 2 Presbyterian risings (1666 – Kirkcudbrightshire,
Cameronian Rising of 1679-80)
- Charles left it in the hands of ministers: John Maitland, first Duke of Lauderdale;
Archibald Campbell, ninth Earl of Argyll
- 1681: James became master of Scotland
- groups sympathetic with James rose – Catholic James Drummond became Chancellor,
John Drummond Secretary→ Earl of Argyll had to flee
- Commission of Highland Justiciary: tackled the problem of clan warfare
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English History I
- Ireland:
- all-Protestant Parliament: Act of Settlement (1662) – never implemented: ‘innocents’ and
active royalists were supposed to obtain restitution, ex-Cromwellians compensation
- duke of Ormonde wanted toleration for Catholics – unsuccessful
- despite English trade restrictions, Irish commerce grew
- 1665-67: Second Dutch War→ Treaty of Breda (1667): it confirmed Enlgand’s possession
of New Amsterdam (it was renamed New York, after James Duke of York)
- the Dutch twice blockaded the Thames – De Ruyter
- 1670, secret Treaty of Dover: Charles II promised Louis XIV to announce his conversion to
Catholicism in return for French subsidy (thus he didn’t need P’s subsidy)
- 1672-74: Third Dutch War→ Treaty of Westminster (1674) – the same like T of Breda
- 1672, Declaration of Indulgence: suspended the penal laws against Catholic recusants and
Protestant Nonconformists
- P’s indignity→ it didn’t want to vote subsidies for the Dutch War until the Declaration of
Indulgence was repealed and replaced by the Test Acts
- 1673, first Test Act: civil and military officers had to take the oath of supremacy, allegiance,
and non-resistance and formally renounce the Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation
BUT: Charles’s brother, James Duke of York, Lord High Admiral, professed Catholic
- 1678-79, Popish Plot – Titus Oates (it was only fantasy, but P believed it)
→ executions: William Howard, Peter Talbot (Catholic Archbishop of Dublin), Oliver
Plunkett (Catholic Archbishop of Armagh)
→ 1678, second Test Act: the first was extended to all members of both houses of P (the
Test Acts were abolished only in 1828)
- 1679, Habeas Corpus: nobody can be imprisoned without a fair trial
- 1679-81: three Ps were dissolved by Charles in order to prevent them passing an exclusion
bill (they wanted to exclude James from the throne)
- English politicians split for the first time into 2 opposed camps
- Tory (old Irish name for Catholic rebels): heirs of Cavaliers
- Whig (Whiggamores: old Scottish name for Covenanters): Parliamentarian, wanted to
exclude James
- their candidate: James Scott, first Duke of Monmouth
- 1683, Rye House Plot – aim of killing Charles and James
- Algernon Sidney; William, Lord Russell were executed→ Whig martyrs
- 1683: George Jeffrey became Lord Chief Justice (‘Bloody Assizes’), Chancellor under
James II
James II (1685-88)
- Catholic king!
- married: - Anne Hyde, daughter of Earl of Clarendon→ Mary(♥William, Prince of Orange)
and Anne (♥ George von Oldenburg, Prince of Denmark)
- Maria d’Este, Catholic daughter of Duke of Modena
- 1685: 2 rebellions:
- Duke of Monmouth in England→ Sedgemoor→ royal victory
- Earl of Argyll proclaimed Monmouth king in Scotland→ royal voctory
→ Jeffrey’s capital sentences
- exploitation of prerogative:
- power of dispensation: James overrode the Test Acts→ he gave offices for Catholics and
dissenters
- suspending power
- 1687, reissue of an amended Declaration of Indulgence: Protestants could worship in
licensed buildings, Catholics in public, not just in private
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English History I
- Archbishop of Canterbury – William Sancroft, and 6 other bishops signed a petition that
the Declaration had no legal basis→ trial→ they were acquitted
- Sancroft: refused an oath of loyalty to Commonwealth, an oath to William and Mary
- Ireland: Richard Talbot, Earl of Tyrconnell, Lord Deputy from 1687: disbanded the
Protestant militia, opened the gates of the army and the administration to Catholics
- 1688 June: Queen gave birth to a son and heir, James Francis Edward→ not the Protestant
daughter, Mary would inherit the throne
- Immortal Seven: they invited William of Orange to invade
- Thomas Osborne (Earl of Danby), Charles Talbot (Earl of Shrewsbury), Edward
Russell, Richard Lumley, Henry Sidney, Henry Compton (Bishop of London)
William III (1689-1702) and Mary II (1689-1694)
- nonjurors: refused to take the oath of allegiance to William and Mary (Sancroft, 5 of the
‘Seven Bishops’ from 1688), refused to sign the Abjuration Act (1702)
- 1689-90: Convention Parliament
- declared that James II abdicated→ offered the crown to William and Mary
- Declaration of Rights/Bill of Rights: Whig programme of strengthening P and diminishing
crown prerogative (free election; right to regular P; right of free debate in P; right of P to
control taxation, the suspension of statutes, the dispensing power, and a standing army)
→ P became an institution
- some prerogatives remained: right to announce war and peace, right to assemble and
dissolve the P, right to appoint and dismiss his own ministers
- the succession to the throne was confined to Protestants
- limited Toleration Act: the public worship of Protestant was allowed
- 1694, Triennial Act: P had to be dissolved after 3 years
- Scotland:
- Scottish convention P approved the main provisions of its English countertpart
- resistance: John Graham of Claverhouse, first Viscount Dundee (‘Bonnie Dundee)
- 1689, Killiecrankie: William III’s defeat, but Dundee died in the battle
- William forced the clan chiefs to swear a public oath of allegiance
- 1692, Massacre of Glencoe: loyalist Campbells killed a community of Macdonalds
- 1703, Act of Security/Settlement: Scotland’s independent right to choose her own
monarchs
- Ireland: support for King James was solid, and not only among Catholics
- 1689: the French out James ashore in order to reinstall him (Williamites ↔ Jacobites)
- Tyrconnell’s Catholic army accompanied him to Dublin – ‘Patriot Parliament’
(depriving Williamites of their land, forbidding Westminster to legislate for Ireland)
- siege of Berry: Protestant defenders’ victory
- 1690, Battle of the Boyne: William’s army of Dutchmen, Danes, Huguenots, English
↔ Comte de Lauzan’s army of French, German, Walloon, Catholic Irish Ø
- 1691, Aughrim: terminal battle→ James’s defeat (he died in 1701 in France – his son
was recognized by Louis XIV as James VIII and III)
- 1691, Treaty of Limerick
- the Protestant Establishment tightened its grip + British-run government in Dublin
- 1697, Banishment Act: prohibited the Catholic hierarchy from operating in Ireland,
licenses to open churches were only given to Protestants
- 1702, Resumption Act: helped Protestants to recover confiscated land
- 1704, 1709: Catholics were not allowed to purchase freehold land, limited Catholic
leases to 31 years→ important sector of the old Catholic landowners joined the
Protestant Church (condition of the landless peasants was terrible)
- fear of Irish Catholic soldiers serving abroad e.g. in France (‘Wild Geese’)
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English History I
- Jacobite invasions of Great Britain in 1691, 1715, 1745 (because they had to work sub
rosa, they took to wearing white roses)
- appearance of ‘Whiteboys’ in Irish countryside→ rural terrorism, secret societies
- about the terrible situation: Arthur Young (English agricultural writer), Jonathan Swift
(Irish clergyman, writer)
- 1782: granting of free trade + brief period of Irish legislative independence
- central figures of self-government: Henry Grattan – Protestant lawyer who supported
the Catholic emancipation
- radical society of United Irishmen in 1798 (Theobald Wolfe Tone, Protestant Dubliner)
- goal of ending British domination through united efforts of all Irish people of all
religious persuasions
- worked with the Catholic Convention of 1792 (demanded an end to the penal laws)
- 1798, Battle of Vinegar Hill: Wolfe Tone’s movement was suppressed
→ British Government decided to end the Irish autonomy
- 1689-97: war with France, Louis XIV – Grand Coalition of England, United Provinces,
Holy Roman Empire, Spain, Savoy
- expensive war→ formation of Commissioners for Public Accounts (1690), large-scale
borrowing – formation of Bank of England – William Paterson (Great Projector) (1694)
Charles Montague, chancellor of the Exchequer
- William’s absence→ reinforcement of P’s hold on domestic policy
- 1690, Beachy Head: Louis beat the English and the Dutch fleet
- 1697, Treaty of Ryswick: Louis XIV kept Strasbourg, William kept his barrier fortresses
on the frontier of the Spanish Netherlands and his style of ‘King of England, by the Grace
of God’
- 1700-13: War of Spanish Succession→ Treaty of Utrecht: gave international recognition to
the Act of Settlement, handed the newly formed United Kingdom a whole new collection of
colonies from Newfoundland to Gibraltar, transferred Spain’s monopoly slave trade contract
from France to the UK (→ UK took over an intercontinental commercial network→ builkt a
worldwide chain of naval bases)
- John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough – commander’s success
- 1701, Act of Settlement: overruled the hereditary rights of the House of Stuart, transferred
the rights to the House of Hanover, confirmed the fact that in the last resort the monarchy
was subservient to Parliament (divine right of kings ended), the monarch should be Protest.
- William’s death→ more candidates: Anne (Mary II’s sister) ↔ James III, ‘Old Pretender’
supported by France and Scotland + Sophia, Princess of Bohemia and Dowager Duchess of
Hanover (her mother was James I’s daughter)
Anne (1702-14)
- she was Protestant Stuart – crowned in England and in Scotland
- 1703, Treaty of Methuen with Portugal on Portuguese wine and English textiles trade
- John Methuen: Privy Councilor, Ambassador Extraordinary to Portugal
- 1704: Gibraltar was captured by Dutch and British fleet – Admiral George Rooke
- 1704, Battle of Blenheim: English and Dutch army (John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough)
defeated Louis XIV in Bavaria
- Whig Junta – ruled by Sidney, Lord Godolphin→ 1710: Robert Harley. Earl of Oxford –
first ever Tory ministry
- 1711, Occasional Conformity Act: act made by Tories against the ‘Occasional Conformists’
– those Nonconformists who took communion in an Anglican Church in order to satisfy the
Test Acts and gain office
- succession: she gave Dowager Sophia’s son naturalization
- Georg Ludwig von Braunschwieg-Lüneburg, Duke and Elector of Hanover
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English History I
Union with Scotland – 1707 May 1:
- 1703: Scots’ Act of Security→ the grudging P in Westminster were stirred into action
- 1705, Aliens Act: threatened to expel all non-naturalized Scots residents from England
- 1706, Bill of Union: Scottish P accepted in 1707→ Kingdom of Great Britain (didn’t include
Ireland)→SP ceased to exist, S Government cease to exist except as a regional department
of a central administration in London, free trade, admitting 55 Scottish MPs in the EnglishP,
Union flag
- Scottish law, S municipal corporations, S currency, Church of S were not to be touched
(Scottish monarchy was founded by Kenneth Mac Alpin in 9th century, tied to the House of
Stuart since 1371)
- 1746, Act of Proscription: sought to crush the Scottish clans, the kilt was banned
The British Imperial Isles
Enlightenment:
- Isaac Newton
- John Locke – Letters (1689-92), Two Treaties on Government (1690), Essay on Human
Understanding (1690)
- its ideals made a wider appeal in Scotland: David Hume (philosopher), Adam Ferguson
(maths, moral philosophy – Essay on the History of Civil Society – 1766), Adam Smith
(The Wealth of Nations – 1776)
Industrial Revolution
- 1701: Jethro Tull – mechanical, horse-drawn seed drill
- 1733: John Kay – flying shuttle
- 1735: Abraham Darby – how to make steel using coal instead of wood – actually, coke
instead of charcoal (coke-stove)
- 1755-1815: enclosure
- 1801, 1836, 1845: General Enclosure Acts
- 1764: James Hargreaves – Spinning Jenny
- 1769: James Watt – steam engine→ coal was needed→ new territories became populated
e.g. Glasgow, Birmingham, Cardiff, Manchester
- former steam engines: Thomas Savery (very end of the 17th century) was the first to make
a practical steam engine, known as the Miner's Friend; Thomas Newcomen recognized
the opportunity and developed a greatly improved steam engine that was more along the
lines of the modern engine
- 1769: Richard Arkwright – spinning/water frame→ founder of modern factory system
- 1779: Samuel Crompton – spinning mule
- 1787: Edmund Carwright – water-powered loom, later converted it from waterpower to
steam power, 1789 – wool-combing machine, 1792 – developed a machine to make rope.
- 1790: ship made of sheet-irons
- 1814: George Stephenson – steam locomotive
- 1825: railway between Stockton and Darlington
Luddites: a group of British workers who between 1811 and 1816 rioted and destroyed
laboursaving textile machinery – harshly suppressed by the government
- uprisings began in Nottinghamshire, where groups of textile workers, in the name of a
mythical figure called Ned Ludd, or King Ludd, destroyed knitting machines, to which they
attributed the prevailing unemployment and low wages
Robert Owen: Welsh social reformer and industrialist, pioneer socialist thinker, he founded a
model industry community in New Lanark in Scotland (1800-29) – it was organized on
principles of mutual cooperation, the first of a series of cooperative communities
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English History I
Herbert Spencer: English philosopher and sociologist, he sought to apply the theory of
natural selection to human societies, developing social Darwinism, coining the phrase ‘the
survival of the fittest’ (1864)
Fabian Society/Fabianism (1883-84) – Beatrice Webb, Sidney – Baron Passfield, George
Bernard Shaw (Irish dramatist): an organization of socialists aiming at the gradual rather
than revolutionary achievement of socialism
Edmund Burke: Irish-born British politician and writer, pleaded the cause of the American
colonists in Parliament and was instrumental in developing the notions of party responsibility
and a loyal opposition within the parliamentary system, his major work was the Reflections on
the Revolution in France (1790) – his opposition to the excesses of the French experience.
- Burkean conservatism: Burke’s definition of the state was in light of his emphasis on
historical continuity (chief job of the state was to guarantee the gradual passage of property
from one generation to another→ prevent radical revolutions, because the propertied would
be more cautious about radical changes than those without property), a government has
to implement its duties to the people (tradition, civility and social courtesy)
Chartism: workingmen's political reform movement in Great Britain, 1838–48
- derived its name from the People's Charter (1838), that called for voting by ballot, universal
male suffrage, annual Parliaments, equal electoral districts, no property qualifications for
members of Parliament, and payment of members – it was rejected by P
- drafted by the London Working Men's Association (1836) – William Lovett, Feargus
O'Connor
- 1839, Newport Rising: a confrontation between Chartist miners and the military in
Wales→ arrest of most of the Chartist leaders
- 1840,: O'Connor founded the National Charter Association (NCA) – first labour party in
the world
- 1842: second Chartist petition – rejected
- the vitality of Chartism was being undermined by a revival of trade unionism, the growth of
the Anti-Corn Law League
- 1847-48: economic crisis→ third Chartist petition – rejected→ end of the movement
Poor Laws:
-1601: Elizabethan poor-relief ac
- from c.1700 workhouses were established
- 1834: placed relief under national supervision
Trade Unions:
- Combination Acts of 1799-1800: all attempts to form trade unions had been treated as
revolutionary, and they were condemned
- 1824: repeal of these acts
- 1834: trial of the Tolpuddle Martyrs→ sentenced to 7 years’ transportation in Australia→
protests→ they were pardoned in 1836
- 6 farm labourers from Tolpuddle, Dorset, attempted to form trade union
- 1864: first International in London
- 1868: first Trade Union Congress
- tiny group of trade unionists to be elected to P could only operate as ‘Lib-Labs’
(cooperating with the Liberal Party)
- Keir Hardie: Scottish, Christian, pacifist, advocate of temperance and women’s rights
- steered British socialism away from Marxism and Fabianism
- 1889: edited the Labour Leader (newspaper)
- 1893: founded the Independent Labour Party
- 1900: organized the federated Labour Representation Committee
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English History I
State:
Prime Minister, Cabinet:
- Cabinet evolved from the Privy Council: as the monarch began the practice of consulting a
few confidential advisors rather than the Council at large
- they were often not led by a single figure such as a Prime Minister
- they often failed to act in unison
- they were appointed and dismissed entirely at the whim of the monarch, with little
parliamentary control
- middle of 19th c.: the cabinet of ministers automatically resigned after a general
election in order to be reconstituted in accordance with the electoral results
- first mention of ‘Prime Minister’ in an official government document occurred during the
premiership of Benjamin Disraeli
- House of Commons abhorred the idea of a sole, prime minister for a long time
- unlimited extent of parliamentary authority:
- 1715, Riot Act: put the summary power of life and death in the hands of local magistrates
– dispersed the unauthorized assemblies
First period of parliamentarism (1707-1800): unreformed period, patronage, clients →
Commons was dependent on its social ‘betters’
- House of Lords retained the right to veto all legislation prepared in the Commons
- ‘rotten boroughs’ e.g. Dunwich/Suffolk, Old Sarum (agent of Duke of Newcastle):
although they were totally deserted, they sent MPs to the P
- ‘pocket boroughs’: constituencies entirely in the gift of a patron
- domination of Southern England
- nabobs: British administrators from India, who came home with considerable wealth→
they could buy their way into P (e.g. Robert Clive, Warren Hastings)→ ‘Bengal Squad’
was a truly independent faction in P
- John Wilkes (1727-97): campaigned for the electoral reform, for freedom of press
(founded a paper: The North Briton), and for American independence
- 1768, Massacre of St George’s Fields in London: the Wilkeite rioters were fired
- debates about the British attitudes to radicalism and conservatism apropos of the French
Revolution
- Charles James Fox – radical, Whig (supporter of Catholic emancipation, abolition of
slavery, civil liberties, parliamentary reforms)
- Edmund Burke – ‘Father of Conservatism’, need for change
- William Pitt the Younger (PM in 1783-1801, 1804-6) – Tory
Second period (1801-1922): in the context of all-Union representation
- Reform Acts (1832, 1867, 1884):
- manhood suffrage:
- Lord John Russell, ‘Finality Jack’ (19th c.) wanted to settle it all at a stroke
- Chartist Movement (1836-58) – ineffective
- Reform Act of 1832: abolished 56 rotten boroughs, gave proper representation to the
growing industrial towns of Northern England, lowered the property qualification –
BUT it left the aristocratic interest intact, did little for the non-English constituencies
- it launched the party-based politics
- Reform Acts of 1867, 1884: further extensions of the male franchise, redistribution of
seats→ decrease of Scottish, Welsh, and Irish representation
- protest of Ireland:
- Young Ireland (1847), Irish Republican Brotherhood, the Fenians launched a
campaign of terror-bombings and murders (1867)
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English History I
- Irish Land League (‘Three F’s’ – fair rents, free sale, fixity of tenure)→ 1880:
siege of the lands of Captain Charles Boycott land agent
- first Liberal Government of W.E. Gladstone (1868-74) supported the Irish cause→
disestablished the Church in Ireland in 1871 (his proposal of restoration of a P in
Dublin was voted down)
- 1874-1914: Irish Home Rule Party – Charles Stewart Parnell
- Irish Home Rule Bills (1886, 1893) – they were voted down
- 1886 by Gladstone: a parliament would be established, all Irish peers and MPs
would be excluded from Westminster altogether, Britain would still retain
control over a range of issues (peace, war, defence, treaties with foreign states,
trade and coinage)
- 1893 by Gladstone (re-elected as PM and depended on Irish Parliamentary Party
MPs to form a majority): an all-Ireland parliament would be set up to control
domestic affairs, it allowed for the eighty Irish MPs to vote in Westminster but
only on bills that affected Ireland
- 1873: first secret ballot
Civil Service’s development:
- until the 19th century, the crown appointed the officials – recruitment of officials by
patronage, BUT:
- sudden growth of the crown bureaucracy during the Napoleonic War
- drastic reduction of the ‘Civil List’ (annual global grant paid to the crown for non-military
purposes)
- 1837, Reform of the Civil List: P took direct responsibility for the maintenance of all
crown officials not engaged as personal aides to the monarch→ distinction between
‘courtiers’ and ‘public servants’ – the public employees became the employees of state
→ the Civil List was decimated
- crisis in the government of India
- administrative authority of East India Company until 1858 – far more efficient and
enlightened administrative structure than the government in London, the term ‘Civil
Service’ was invented in Calcutta
- Sir James Brown, Marques of Dalhousie, Governor-General since 1874→
annexation of Punjab (1849)→ mutiny→ East India C Ø
- 1855, Civil Service Commission: aim was to separate the administration from executive
policy-making, introduce competitive entrance examinations instead of patronage
- 1870, Order in Council: Gladstone cleared away the obstacles from the realization of the
Civil Service Commission
- order in council: orders given by the sovereign on the advice of all or some of the
members of the privy council, without the prior consent of Parliament
- the prerogative allows an order in council to be used to ratify a treaty, to declare the
end of a state of war, or to appoint civil service commissioners, but as a vehicle of
royal power such an order no longer has any utility
- 1871, Local Government Board Act: transferred the duties of the Poor Law to a new
department of state→ first step in the long-running reform of local government
Political parties:
- struggle over the bill to exclude James→ Tory and Whig party emerged
- Tory: country gentry, high Anglicans
- Whig: aristocratic landowners, wealthy middle class
- revival of 18th c.: Tory – William Pitt the Younger, Whig – Charles James Fox
- emergence of the Conservative Party from the old loose grouping of Tory interest
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English History I
- Sir Robert Peel’s Tamworth Manifesto (election speech in 1834 in which he accepted the
changes instituted by Reform Act, and expressed his belief in moderate political reform,
PM: 1834-35, 1841-46)
- 1848: the party split over the repeal of the Corn Laws
- reorganized by Benjamin Disraeli (PM: 1868, 1874-80) – support for electoral reform,
strong, activist imperial and foreign policy
- Liberal Party – the successor of Whig Party
- 1868: William Gladstone formed the first Liberal Government (PM: 1868-74, 1880-85,
1886, 1892-94) – establishment of a national system of education (1870), voting by secret
ballot (1873), legalization of trade unions (1868), enfranchisement of the working class in
rural areas (1884), reform of judicial system
- 1886: split within the party over the Irish Home Rule Bill
- 1893: Independent Labour Party – support of the trade unions and Fabian Society
British Law:
- Irish law: a branch of English law (it was promulgated by the medieval P in Dublin, but
always subject to an English veto)
- 1781: introduction of Habeas Corpus
- 1801: English law was held to prevail whenever a conflict loomed
- Scottish law:
- pre-eminence of royal justice
- French influence→ strong Romano-canonical tradition of codified laws, and of centralized
courts – precedent counted for nothing
- customary law of Wales was suppressed in1284 (after the English conquest)
- Wales Act (1535), Henry VIII: introduction of English law into all parts of Wales, but the
judicial system remained separate
- 1542-1688: arbitrary courts of Tudors’ Council
- English law
- 3 sources: common law, equity, statute
- common law: accumulation of legal cases, the guiding principle is that of precedent,
emphasis on the ratio decidendi (legal opinion) – Year Books of cases (since 13th c.),
Law Reports (since 16th c.)
- principal courts: King’s Bench, Common Pleas, Exchequer
- equity: petitioners began to address the King’s Council in search of judgements based
not on precedent, but on common sense and morality in the 15th c.→ using principles
owing to the canon law of the Church
- the court of Chancery
- statutory law: after the union with Scotland, the parliamentary statutes became the
most usual method of lawmaking, whilst courts of common law and equity
concentrated on the application of law
- court practice: ancient division between barristers and solicitors
- barrister (‘senior branch’): trained at one of the 4 Inns of Court (Gray’s Inn, Lincoln’s
Inn, Middle Temple, Inner Temple), received at the Bar when qualified
- exclusive right of audience before a judge in the higher courts
- solicitor (‘junior branch’): trained in the Law Society
- they could only appear on behalf of their clients in the lower courts, most of their
work was devoted to general legal advice, and to preparation of briefs for barristers
- there is no one document called ‘British Constitution’, but there are several others: Act of
Union (1707), Act of Union with Ireland (1800), Irish Home Rule (81914) etc.
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English History I
- important persons in 18th c.: David Hume (Scots criminal law), Blackstone, William
Murray – Lord Mansfield (incorporated and perfected commercial law), Philip Yorke –
Earl of Hardwick (equity)
- legal reforms in 19th c.:
- 1846: modern system of county courts
- 1857: Court of Probate (assumed the duties of ecclesiastical courts in probate matters),
Matrimonial Causes Act (provision for civil divorce)
- 1852, 1854, 1860, Procedure Acts
- 1873, Supreme Court of Judicature Act: reorganized the central courts→ Court of
Appeal, High Court (consisting of 5 divisions: Queen’s Bench, Chancery, Probate,
Divorce, Admiralty), legal functions of the House of Lords were given a permanent
staff
- 1907: separate Court of Criminal Appeal was set up
George I (1714-27)
- King of Great Britain, France and Ireland
- 1715: Jacobite Rising
- 1715, Riot Act: if 12 or more people unlawfully assemble and disturb the public peace, they
must disperse upon proclamation or be considered guilty of felony
- Sir Robert Walpole
- first lord of Treasury, Chancellor of the Exchequer (1715-17, 1721-42), led the Whig
administration, management of the House of Commons→ he is regarded as the first Prime
Minister (in effect if not in name)
- he wanted to reform the trade, but his plan was defeated→ dismissed all the officeholders
who had voted against (1733: major step in the development of cabinet solidarity)→
stronger opposition group
- foreign policy: friendship with France, avoidance of war, but he was forced into the War
of Jenkins’s Ear, thus into the Austrian Succession War
- 1719: attempted Spanish invasion in support of Jacobites – fleet sailing for England was
dispersed by storms, troops landed in Scotland were defeated at Battle of Glen Shiel
- 1720: collapse of the South Sea Company→ London stock market crash
George II (1727-60)
- 1740-48: War of the Austrian Succession
- 1745, Battle of Fontenoy: the French army under Marshal Saxe defeated the English army
and their allies under the duke of Cumberland
- 1745: Jacobite Rising
- 1745, Battle of Prestonpans/Gladsmuir (Scotland): Jacobites’ victory
- 1746, Battle of Culloden – Jacobites’ defeat – last battle in island
- 1755: Dr Samuel Johnson published his Dictionary of the English Language
- 1756-73: Seven Years War
George III (1760-1820)
- active ruler
- his son, Prince Regent (George IV), repeatedly took over during the periods of royal insanity
- the grandest period of imperial expansion
- government ministers took an increasingly assertive position→ looked to the monarch not
for a lead but for consent and acquiescence
- 1761: bought Duke Buckingham’s palace in London (their resident was Windsor)
- 1776-83: War of American Independence
- 1785: foundation of The Times
- 1787: Kingdom of Ireland granted autonomy
- 1792-1815: Napoleonic Wars→ influence of the P and ministers increased
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English History I
- 1793-97, 1798-1802: 1. and 2. military coalition against France (unsuccessful on land,
although the Navy won some overwhelming victories)
- 1798, Aboukir Bay/Battle of the Nile (Nelson ↔ François-Paul Brueys D'Aigalliers)→
Napoleon’s defeat
- 1803-14: 3. and 4. coalition against France (the war took place also on the colonies)
- 1805, Trafalgar: Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson’s victory (↔ France, Spain) – Nelson Ø
- 1808-14: expeditions of British army in Iberia and in France – Wellington
- 1815, Waterloo: Duke of Wellington (Irish)
- 1815, Congress in Vienna (Wellington): confirmed the British expansion (Malta,
Helgoland, former Dutch colonies of Cape Colony, Mauritius, Seychelle Islands,
Ceylon/Sri Lanka, Maldive Islands; parts of West Indies – Trinidad, Tobago, obtained a
protectorate over the Ionian islands)
- political consequences: Pitt the Younger (PM: 1783-1801, 1804-6 – Tory)
- 1794: suspension of Habeas Corpus in order to halt radical agitation
- military coalitions against France→ financial support of Britain’s allies→ monetary
crisis
- rebellion in Ireland (1798) hampered the war→ union and promise of emancipation in
1800, but the king refused the emancipation→ Pitt resigned
- 1804: Pitt was recalled to repel Napoleon’s invasion
- 1802: British Military College
- 1815, first Corn Law (Corn Laws: protected British farmers from foreign competition by
allowing grain to be imported only after the price of home-grown wheat had risen above a
certain level, they had unintended effect of forcing up bread prices, repealed in 1846)
- 1815-16: economic depression
- great social, economic and political upheavals→ riots between 1811-19
- 1816: Spa Fields Riot
- 1917, Pentrich Rising: a general uprising, but led by an unemployed Nottingham
stockinger, and probable ex-luddite, Jeremiah Brandreth
- 1817, march of the Blanketeers (nickname given to some 5000 operatives who met in St.
Peters Field, near Manchester, to march to London, each carrying blankets or rugs)
- their object was to see the prince regent and lay their grievances before him
- the leaders were seized and imprisoned
- 1819, Peterloo Massacre: attack by Manchester yeomanry (volunteer cavalry force, 17941908) against a large but peaceable crowd in St Peter’s Field, Manchester
- the crowd was a rally of supporters of political reform
- yeomanry was sent to arrest their speaker→ killed 11 civilians, injured more than 500
→ Six Acts (1819): labelled any meeting for radical reform as “an overt act of treasonable
conspiracy”
- 1820, Cato Street Conspiracy: was an attempt to murder all the British cabinet ministers
exploiting the crisis after George III’s death
- conspirators were members of a group of Spencean Philanthropists, named after the British
radical speaker Thomas Spence – e.g. Arthur Thistlewood
Union with Ireland – 1801 Jan 1:
- 1154: nominally subject to English overlordship
- 1395: English colony possessed limited autonomy and a separate P
- 1800, Act of Unions (one in London, one in Dublin):
- 28 Irish peers joined the British House of Lords, a block of a hundred Irish MPs entered
the House of Commons
- Ireland shared the national debt
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English History I
- Lord Lieutenant and his chief Secretary remained in Dublin Castle at the head of a
separate Irish branch of the British administration
→ ‘United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland’
George IV (1820-30)
- 1828: second Corn Law
- love affair with a Catholic woman, Mrs Fitzherbert
William IV (1830-1837)
- George’s brother, former admiral
- 1832, Reform Act
- 1833: prohibition of slavery
- 1834: he appointed Lord Melbourne PM (Whig) against the wishes of the Commons – no
British monarch would ever take this risk again
Victoria (1837-1901)
- peak of its international power and prestige
- Lord Melbourne was her mentor in the beginning
- married Prince Albert (German – Victoria preserved her Germanity – every single British
monarch between 1714-1901 was married to a German spouse)
- 1838: foundation of Anti-Corn Low League (John Bright, Richard Cobden)–for free trade
- 1838-42: Afghan War – ineffective
- 1839: Newport Rising
- 1845-50: famine in Ireland
- 1846: repeal of the Corn Laws
- 1851: The Great Exhibition (industrial exhibition)
- 1853-56: Crimean War – in support of French and Turks against the Russian
- it wasn’t successful – only the one Russian fortress of Sevastopol was captured
- but the British Royal Navy threatened the Baltic Russian fleet in Kronstadt→ Tsar sued
for peace
→ Aberdeen had to resign→ Palmerston became the PM
- 1861: Albert’s death
- 1870, Education Act: state-paid elementary education for all British children
- 1880: attendance at school was made compulsory
- 1875: Disraeli bought a controlling interest in the Suez Canal
- 1878, Congress of Berlin: Disraeli collected Cyprus
- 1896: Marconi Company’s patent on radio transmission
Religion:
- revival of English Protestantism, Nonconformist camp
- Methodism – Revd John Wesley (1703-91): most popular in Wales (it helped the Welsh
National Revival)→ 1811: Methodists split from established Church in Wales
- ‘Emancipation’
- 1780: attempt in P to repeal the harshest provisions of Anti-Catholic legislation→ riots in
London – Lord George Gordon (had a Protestant Association)
- 1788: Catholics’ Protestation – they formally denied the temporal authority of the Pope→
the Catholic worship became legal again
- Union with Ireland→ promise of full Catholic Emancipation→ didn’t occurred→ Daniel
O’Connell’s Catholic Association’s political lobby→ 1829: Catholic Emancipation Act –
Test Acts were repealed (rendered Catholics and Nonconformists eligible for all offices
except those of Lord Lieutenant, Lord Chancellor, Regent, Monarch)
- Scotland: - 1843: schism of Kirk – breakaway of the evangelical Free Church of Scotland
- 1900: fundamentalist ‘Wee Frees’ seceded from the Free Church
- ‘Disestablishment’ ↔ anti-disestablishmentarianism (longest word!)
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English History I
- 1871: Gladstone’s Liberal ministry set up the disestablished Church of Ireland
- 1920: disestablished Anglican Church in Wales
Colonization:
- Colonial Office (India Office was a separate department) – British colonies
- Foreign Office – Non-British Territories e.g. Egypt
- Home Office – dependencies within British Isles but outside the UK e.g. Channel Islands,
the Isle of Man
- 1865: all colonies were permitted to pass their own legislation (but: ‘rule of repugnancy’)
- abolition of the slavery:
- Granville Sharp: The Injustice of Tolerating Slavery (1769)
- took a lead in founding a colony for liberated slaves in Sierra Leone (1787)
- 1807: the slave trade was formally prohibited for the merchants
- William Wilberforce, Governor of Sierra Leone, evangelical philanthropist – Calpham
Sect
- 1833: Act for the Abolition for Slavery
North America:
- 1609: Virginia (John Smith)→ V sent pioneers to Bermuda and Bahamas
- 1625: Barbados was taken over by Earl Of Carlisle
- 1629: Massachusetts (Puritan exiles, Mayflower)→ refugees from M founded Rhode Island
- 1636: Connecticut
- 1632: Maryland (Catholic exiles, George Calvert, Baron Baltimore)
- 1655: Jamaica (prize of Cromwell’s war with Spain)
- 1665: New York, New Jersey captured during the Second Dutch War
- 1681: Pennsylvania (Charles II’s debt to one of his admirals→ he gave it as freehold to the
admiral’s son, William Penn + 1200 Quakers)
- 1682: Delaware was conquered from the Swedes
- 1700-13: War of Spanish Succession – struggles in America with the French
- 1710: Port Royal, Acadia were captured by Francis Nicholson
- Utrecht: Newfoundland and the fur-trading posts in Hudson Bay were confirmed to UK
- 1713: Carolina (British noblemen)
- 1727: Georgia (Protestant emigrants)
- War of Jenkins’s Ear with Spain (1739-48) – War of the Austrian Succession (1740-48)
- 1744: France’s unsuccessful assault on Port Royal
- 1745: a group from Massachusetts and British fleet (Peter Warren) took Louisburg
- 1748, Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle: returned Louisburg to France
- 1754-63: French and Indian War
- one of the objects of the conflict: upper Ohio region (both French colonies and Ohio
Company founded by Virginians in 1748 wanted to occupy)
- Robert Dinwiddie (governor of Virginia) + George Washington
- the British attacked the French forts in the West (e.g. Duquesne, Fort Niagara) and the
French cities on the St Lawrence, Quebec, Montreal
- 1757: ministry of elder Pitt→ Lord Amherst, John Forbes, and James Wolfe captured
successfully (↔ Montcalm)
- 1756-63, Treaty of Paris at the end of the Seven Years War: conquest of French Canada
(Quebec, Illinois), East Louisiana from France, and Florida from Spain + Dominica, St
Vincent, Grenada, Trinidad + India
- 1776-83: War of American Independence
- 1812-14: British-American War→ Treaty of Ghent: formally ended the hostilities
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English History I
Canada:
- the first English footholds were purely commercial:
- 1605: Newfoundland Company
- 1609-10: Robert Hudson’s travel in North America→ discovered the Hudson Bay→
Hudson’s Bay Company
- 1756-63, Seven Years War: Wolfe captured Quebec (1759), Montreal (1760)
- 1774, Quebec Act: Sir Guy Carleton
- instituted a permanent administration in Canada replacing the temporary government
created at the time of the Proclamation of 1763
- gave the French Canadians complete religious freedom and restored the French form of
civil law
- Canada was given the triangle of Ohio-Mississippi-Great Lakes
- 1791: Constitutional Act (Pitt): divided Canada into Upper and Lower Canada and
sanctioned the institutions of the French Canadians in the latter province
- 1866: Newfoundland became self-governing Dominion
- 1867: Canada became self-governing Dominion
Australia:
- James Cook: 1768-71, 1772-75 (circumnavigated the world, discovered Australia→ New
South Wales, discovered the Antarctic), 1776-79 (North America, Alaska)
- 1788: new colony (Sidney) at Botany Bay in Australia
- 1830s: New Zealand
- 1900: it became self-governing Dominion
Near East:
- 1878: protectorate over Cyprus
Africa:
-firstly trading posts under the control of the Royal African Company
- 1661, James Island in the Gambia
- 1787: Sierra Leone – Freetown
- 1806: Cape was conquered during the Napoleonic War→ set up British colonies (it
remained under British rule until the formation of the Union of South Africa in 1910)
- 1843: Gold Coast
- 1843: conquest of Natal (Portuguese Christmas=‘Natal’, it was Boer republic in 1839-43)
- 1877: Sir Theophilus Shepstone annexed Transvaal/South African Republic for the British
- 1879: Anglo-Zulu War – the end of the Zulus as an independent nation, the British
consolidated their power over most of the colonies of South Africa
- Boers: inhabitant of South Africa of Dutch or French Huguenot descent
- they first settled (1652) near the Cape of Good Hope that Great Britain annexed (1806)→
many of the Boers departed (1835–40) on the Great Trek and created republics in Natal,
the Orange Free State, and the Transvaal
- Boers War→ the Boer territories were annexed and the Union of South Africa formed
- 1882: quelling a revolt in Egypt→ rule over Egypt
- Cecil Rhodes: British financer, colonizer
- diamond-mining industry→ secured mining concessions in Matabeleland and
Mashonaland through the British South Africa Company (1889) which established
complete control of the territory + Kimberley diamond fields
- his aim was: British dominion “from the Cape to Cairo”
- prime minister of Cape Colony in 1890-1896 (he unsuccessfully tried to overthrow the
Boer regime in Transvaal→ Jameson Raid in 1895)
- helped colonize the territory→ Rhodesia (since 1980 Zimbabwe)
- Rhodes scholarships
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English History I
- 1885, Conference of Berlin: Nigeria
- 1885: Bechuanaland
- 1887: Somalia
- 1889: Rhodesia
- wars with the Afrikaner Boers of Transvaal (fight for their republics)
- 1880-81: First Boer War/Transvaal War
- Boers formally declared independence from Great Britain
- 1881, Majuba Hill: British defeat→ Gladstone gave the Boers self-government in the
Transvaal
- 1895-96, Jameson Raid: raid on Paul Kruger’s Transvaal Republic carried out by Leander
Starr Jameson + his Rhodesian and Bechuanaland policemen, it was intended to trigger
an uprising by the primarily British expatriate workers (Uitlanders) in the Transvaal, but
failed to do so
- 1899-1902: Second Boer War→ the 2 independent Boer republics, Transvaal Republic
(South African Republic – Kruger) and the Orange Free State (Martinus Steyn –
president), were added to the Cape Colony and Natal under British rule
- 1890-1920: British East Africa (territory of Kenya)
- 1888: Imperial British East Africa Company began operations in the area
- 1890: administered Uganda, protectorate of Zanzibar
- 1895: British government proclaimed a protectorate – capital was Mombasa
- 1898, Battle of Omdurman: defeat of the Mahdist state in Sudan by the Anglo-Egyptian
army of Lord Kitchener
- Abyssinia resisted successfully
East and South Asia:
- 1816: British Guiana
- Malaysia:
- 1819: founded Singapore
- 1824: formally (actual control had been exercised since 1795) acquired Malacca from the
Dutch
- 1824, Straits of Settlements: Singapore, Pinang, Malacca were given a unified administration
- 1858: dissolution of the East India Company→ they were placed under the jurisdiction of
the India Office
- 1867: became a crown colony administered by the Colonial Office
+ Labuan (1906 – dependency of Singapore), Christmas Island (1889), Coco Island (1903)
- Borneo:
- Dutch influence
- 1840s: James Brooke, British adventurer, took the north edge of the island→ what is now
Sabah was declared a British protectorate in 1882
- 1888: Sarawak and Brunei
- 1839-42: first Opium War with China→ Hong Kong (lease)
- 1856-60: second Opium War→ opening of five ports
- Burma/Myanmar:
- 1824-26, fist Anglo-Burman War: friction between the Burman Toungoo dynasty and the
British over border areas in India→ forced Myanmar to cede to British India the Rakhine
and Tanintharyi coasts
- 1852: second Anglo-Burman War → the British occupied the Ayeyarwady delta
- 1885: third Anglo-Burman War→ gain complete control of Myanmar
40/44
English History I
India:
- UK expelled the French and the Portuguese
- Bengal:
- 1757-59: Robert Clive put the East India Company into a dominant position
- 1757, Battle of Plassey (Bengal): Clive defeated the ruling Bengali prince
- Moghul Empire in India began to fragment into smaller successor states→ UK could
play off one client maharajah against another
- 1772: Warren Hastings became the Governor of Bengal
- 1784, India Act: established the Board of Control of the East India Company –central
coordinating authority of a British-run confederation – it strengthened the government’s
powers there but left patronage in the hands of the East India Company (William Pitt –
prime minister in 1783)
- 1799, Karnataka: Muslim leaders conquered the Hindu rulers of Karnataka, but were
defeated by the British, who restored the Hindu dynasty and thereafter provided protection
- 1814-16: Gurkha War (Nepal)
- 1833: East India Company lost its commercial monopoly but retained its function as a
private administrative authority
- Sir James Brown, Marques of Dalhousie, Governor-General since 1847→ annexation of
Punjab (1849)→ mutiny→ East India C Ø
- 1857-58: Sepoy Rebellion, Indian Mutiny
- 1858, Government of India Act: disbanded the East India Company, introduced a regular
administration under the Secretary of State and the Viceroy
- 1877: Proclamation of the Empire of India – Queen Victoria proclaimed Empress of India by
the Royal Titles Act, introduced by Benjamin Disraeli
- Lord Curzon:
- viceroy of India (1898–1905): important reforms in administration, transportation,
education, and currency
- books: Russia in Central Asia, Persia and the Persian Question, Problems of the Far East
- Scotland:
- 1682: abortive Scottish settlement of Stuart’s Town, South Carolina
- 1695: creation of Bank of Scotland, Act for Settling of Schools, act creating the ‘Company
of Scotland Tradeing with Affrice and the Indies’ – founded by William Paterson
- 1698: Scottish expedition to Central America in order to establish New Caledonia
(Isthmus of Panama)→ Darien
41/44
English History I
Prime Minister
Sir Robert Walpole
Earl of Wilmington
Henry Pelham
Duke of Newcastle
Duke of Devonshire
Duke of Newcastle
Earl of Bute
George Grenville
Marquess of Rockingham
William Pitt the Elder (earl of Chatham)
Duke of Grafton
Lord North
Marquess of Rockingham
Earl of Shelburne
Duke of Portland
William Pitt the Younger
Henry Addington (later Viscount Sidmouth)
William Pitt the Younger
Baron Grenville
Duke of Portland
Spencer Perceval
Earl of Liverpool
George Canning
Viscount Goderich (later earl of Ripon)
Duke of Wellington
Earl Grey
Viscount Melbourne
Sir Robert Peel
Viscount Melbourne
Sir Robert Peel
Lord John Russell (later earl Russell)
Earl of Derby
Earl of Aberdeen
Viscount Palmerston
Earl of Derby
Viscount Palmerson
Earl Russell
Earl of Derby
Benjamin Disraeli
William Gladstone
Benjamin Disraeli
William Gladstone
Marquess of Salisbury
William Gladstone
Marquess of Salisbury
William Gladstone
Earl of Rosebery
Marquess of Salisbury
42/44
Party
Tory
Tory
Tory
Whig
Tory
Tory
Tory
Tory
Tory
Tory
Whig
Whig
Tory
Whig
Conservative
Whig
Conservative
Peelite Conservative
Liberal
Conservative
Liberal
Liberal
Conservative
Conservative
Liberal
Conservative
Liberal
Conservative
Liberal
Conservative
Liberal
Liberal
Conservative
Dates in office
1721-42
1742-43
1743-54
1754-56
1756-57
1757-62
1762–63
1763–65
1765–66
1766–68
1768–70
1770–82
1782
1782–83
1783
1783–1801
1801–4
1804–6
1806–7
1807–9
1809–12
1812–27
1827
1827–28
1828–30
1830–34
1834
1834–35
1835–41
1841–46
1846–52
1852
1852–55
1855–58
1858–59
1859–65
1865–66
1866–68
1868
1868–74
1874–80
1880–85
1885–86
1886
1886–92
1892–94
1894–95
1895–1902
English History I
*Hundred Years War:
Conflict:
- English King’s lands in France: Normandy, Anjou, Maine, Touraine, Aquitaine, Hainault→
he is the vassal of the French King
- Capet dynasty died out→ Philip VI Valois got the French throne ↔ Edward III was
pretender because of his French mother
Edward III (1327-77)
- 1337: Edward III claims the throne of France
- 1340, Sluys: English naval victory
- 1346, Crécy: English victory (English artillery defeated the French cavalry – 1. canons!)
- Black Prince (Edward III’s son, Edward of Woodstock) invaded Normandy
- John Luxemburgian, Bohemian king’s death
- 1347, Calais: the English captured it
- 1349, 1361, 1368, 1375: Black Death
- 1350: Philippe VI of France succeeded by Jean II (1350-64)
- 1355-56: Black Prince’s expedition in South France
- 1356, Poitiers: English victory + capture of Jean II
- 1360, Peace of Brétigny: Aquitaine surrendered to England, Edward III renounced claim to
Normandy, the allegiance between the French and the English king ceased to exist
- 1364: Jean II succeeded by Charles V (1364-80)
- 1369: Charles V retook Aquitaine
- 1370, Limoges: English massacre at
- 1372, La Rochelle: French naval victory with the help of the Castilian fleet (Henry
Trastamara)
- 1373: John of Gaunt (Edward III’s son) led his chevauchée from Calais to Bordeaux
- chevauchée (promenade): medieval warfare – focusing on wreaking havoc, burning and
pillaging enemy territory
- 1376: death of Black Prince
- 1380: Charles V died→ Charles VI (1380-1422)
Richard II (1377-99)
- 1389, Truce of Leulinghen between French and English
- 1396, Peace of Paris: England retained only Calais and part of Gascony
Henry IV (1399-1413)
- 1402, Humbleton Hill: French support to Scottish invasion of England
- 1403: French raids on the English coast
- 1405: French support to Owain Glyn Dwr
- 1407: assassination of Duke of Orléans→ war between Burgundy and Orléans (Armagnac)
- Henry supported the Burgundian party (Félelemnélküli John)
- 1412: Duke of Clarence led chevauchée from Normandy to Bordeaux
Henry V (1423-22)
- 1415: Henry captured harbour of Harfleur
- 1415, Agincourt: English victory→ Henry proclaimed himself king of France
- 1419, Montereau Bridge: Charles, the French dauphin, killed John of Burgundy
- 1419: the English captured Rouen
- 1420, Treaty of Troyes: Henry V was recognized as heir to Charles VI (instead of the
dauphin, Charles /VII/) + Henry married Catherine, the French princess
- 1422: Henry V died, Chares VI died→ Henry VI (1422-1461, 1470-71) – king of France
north of Loire, Charles VII (1422-61) – king of France south of Loire
- 1429, Orléans: French victory – Joan of Arc (they couldn’t capture Paris)
- 1429: coronation of Charles VII at Rheims
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English History I
- 1431: execution of Joan of Arc
- 1431: Henry was crowned in Paris
- 1435, Treaty of Arras: end of Burgundian-Armagnac War
- 1436: the French recapture Paris
- 1444, Treaty of Tours: five-year truce
- 1448: English surrendered Maine to France
- 1450, Formigny: French victory – reconquered Normandy
- 1451: France reconquered Guyenne
- 1453, Castillon: French victory
→ England lost its French estates except Calais
War of Roses (1455-85)
Richard II (1377-99)
- Black Prince’s son
- spendthrift→ poll-tax→ 1381: peasants’ revolt in England – John Ball, Wat Tyler
- Duke of Lancester (John of Gaunt, Black Prince’s brother), Duke of York (Edmund, Black
Prince’s brother) held the real power
- he was deposed by Henry IV (John of Gaunt’s son)
Henry IV (1399-1413)→ LANCASTER
Henry V (1413-22) – son of Henry IV
Henry VI (1422-61, 1470-71) – son of Henry V
- married Margaret of Anjou→ strived to keep peace→ gave back the French Anjou+Maine
- Richard, Duke of York’s riot (grandson of Edmund, Duke of York)
- 2 groups: Yorkists (e.g. Neville, Count of Warwick) – Lancastrians (e.g. Percys)
- Castillon→ Henry’s nervous breakdown→ 1454: Richard proclaimed himself regent
- 1455, Saint Albans: Richard captured Henry VI
- 1460, Wakefield: Lancasters’ victory→ Richard died
- 1461: victories of Yorkists→ deposition of Henry VI
Edward IV (1461-70, 1471-83) – son of Richard, Duke of York→ YORK
- 1464, Hexham: York’s victory→ Henry VI was sent to the Tower
- 1470: Count of Warwick came over to Lancasters→ released Henry VI→ Edward fled to
Burgundy
Henry VI (1470-71)→ LANCASTER
- 1471, Barnet: Edward IV defeated Lancasters (stifled Henry VI)
Edward IV (1471-83)→ YORK
Edward V (1483) – son of Edward IV
Richard III (1483-85)
- brother of Edward IV, Duke of Gloucester
- killed Edward V
- married Anna Neville
- 1485, Bosworth: Henry Tudor’s victory (great-great-grandson of John of Gaunt)
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