History of England

The England is extended and the most populated of the four nations which compose the the United Kingdom. The England corresponds roughly to the territory conquered by the Anglo-Saxon at the 5th century, before being unified at the 10th century and forming the kingdom of England, which becomes the Great Britain by the Acte of Union of 1707 with the Royaume of Scotland, and then the United Kingdom by the Acte of Union of 1800 with the kingdom of Ireland.

Prehistory

Populated as of the OJ, the island which was going to become England, sees to open out the megalithic civilization to which Stonehenge testifies. The Celtes settle there to II: they are called Bretons, and their island, known for his tin exports, bears the name of Brittany at that time.

Roman Brittany

Anglo-Saxons

The Anglo-Saxon conquest

Starting from the middle of the 5th century, the Anglo-Saxon Germanic invaders pushed back Breton south gradually and is towards the west of the island of Brittany while the Irishmen carried out raids on the west coast of Brittany (it is besides on this occasion that holy Patrick, who was Breton, was captured by the Irishmen). The Irishmen ended up basing true principalities on the Welsh and Scottish coasts. If the first were finally crushed, the seconds gave rise to Scotland by the fusion of the Dal Riada with the kingdoms britonnic of north. During this period on which the reliable sources are lacking, of the little romanized Breton populations many Breton kingdoms in the island of Brittany established, in particular in Wales and others migrated to Ireland. In the same way, there probably the main cause of a mass emigration is the Breton ones towards the Armorican peninsula, this one then taking the name of “Small Brittany”.

However in spite of the defeats part of the Breton people, unconquered by the Angles, succeeds in being maintained until our days in Great Britain, in the Principality of Wales and in Cornouailles. Until recently one largely believed that the Anglo-Saxons had supplanted the Breton populations, or that the areas of Brittany occupied by the Anglo-Saxons were uninhabited or although the Breton ones had escaped in front of their advance. Recent genetic studies are in disagreement with all these assumptions, suggesting that the Anglo-Saxons contracted mixed marriages with the Breton ones. Indeed, these genetic studies suggest that the English did not eliminate the first Breton inhabitants and that many tribes remained in what was going to become England. The results of Capelli reinforce the search for Steven Bassett of the University of Birmingham; its work during the years 1990 suggests that most of the Midlands Western only were very slightly colonized by the Angles and the Saxon ones. The results of this research coincide with those of the P Evans, and suggest that the major part of Breton remained in Brittany which was going to become England and which they thus anglicized and mixed to the Anglo-Saxons (especially the girls and the women, captured in great number seems it, according to the P Evans); they thus contributed to give its original aspect to the English people, mixes Celtic and Germanic roots. Others, in particular Cornouaillais and Combriens, remain more strongly related with the Breton ones. A new group of English was influenced by the Scandinavian culture, in particular in the north of England (York was formerly under the Danish jurisdiction of Jorvik). These groups had an apparent impact on English, for example the modern significance of the word dream is of origin Scandinavian. Moreover, the place names which include the thwaite and the city are Scandinavian of origin.

But few place names in England, except Cornouailles, are derived from the Breton place names of origin. Some in the Cumberland, the Westmorland in the North-West like in some other pockets. The names of the old cities romano-Breton often contain Celtic roots as London (the name London is an evolution of Breton the Lundun ), York, Dorchester, Dover (Dover) and other Colchester. It is thought that some elements of the place names English referring to their Géomorphologie are in all or partly or of Breton origin: one finds the roots Celtic bre or ball for the hills, carr for a high rock place, comb to qualify a small deep valley.

England - in English England - is the “ground of the Angles”. Initially it was parcelled out between the seven kingdoms of the Heptarchie: East Anglia, Essex, Kent, Mercie, Northumbrie, Sussex, Wessex, etc the reunification was the fact of Edouard the Old one, king de Wessex, assisted his/her Æthelflæd sister, queen of Mercie in the years 902-920: the East Anglia is conquered into 917, the kingdom of York into 918 but reperdu into 919, Northumbrie into 918. And in 919 Mercie is annexed to Wessex.

Christianization

The kingdoms Anglo-Saxon S were evangelized at the 7th century following the mission of Augustin of Canterbury, sent by the Pape Gregoire Large the, which convert Aethelbert, king of the Kent (597) and founded évêché of Canterbury, and by the Irish and Scottish monks of the monastery of Lindisfarne, which converted king Oswald of Northumbrie (634). The other Anglo-Saxon kingdoms converted under their influence.

Following tensions between the missionaries of Lindisfarne (the Celtic mission ) and the others (the Roman mission ) about the method to determine the date of the festival of Easter, had place important a council with the Abbaye of Streanarshalch, close to Whitby (664). The English Church adopted the Roman rite.

Unification and the fight against the Vikings

Starting from 793 (raid against the monastery of Lindisfarne), the Viking S plunder the English coasts. At the same time, the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms are unified by Egbert de Wessex towards 823 - 829. But the Danish settle in all North-East of England (taken of York, 866), of London to the estuary of the the Mersey (Danelaw). The king Alfred Large the of Wessex (871 - 899) manages to stop them (Bataille of Edington, 878, taken of London, 885), but must recognize the domination of Danelaw to them (left England in the North of a line which goes from London to Chester). The reconquest is completed (917 - 927) by his/her son Edouard Old the and by his grandson Athelstan, who then gains in 937 an important victory (Bataille of Brunanburh) against the Scot and the Danes of Dublin. Their successors must still push back attacks, before England does not find peace under the reign of Edgar the Pacific (959 - 975).

Danish domination

The Vikings take again their raids starting from 991, and the king Ethelred II must pay them tribute, which leads to the establishment of the first generalized tax (Danegeld). But the massacre which it orders of the alive Dane in England (November 13rd 1002) led the king of Denmark (in addition king de Norvège) to the conquest of England in 1013, then again in 1016. This Danish domination and this integration of England within a Scandinavian maritime empire last until in 1042, date on which the dynasty saxonne returns to the capacity under Edouard the Confessor.

Medieval England

The conquest Norman

In 1066, after the death of Edouard the Confessor, his brother-in-law Harold seizes the power, but the duke of Normandy Guillaume, first cousin of Edouard, asserts the throne of England, crosses the English Channel and beats Harold with Hastings (October 14th). The conquest Norman by the Norman , told by the Tapestry of Bayeux, is a fundamental event in the English history: Guillaume replaces mainly the Anglo-Saxon nobility by the nobility Norman and reorganizes England according to the Norman centralized feudal model. The fields with which are equipped the Norman barons are dispersed, and located on the two sides of the English Channel, which ensures their obedience. Guillaume covers England of castle-forts (whose Tour of London celebrates it). He reforms the law (Common law) civil Anglo-Saxon by introducing elements of the law Norman there. Finally it makes establish a land register (Domesday Book), monumental census of all the properties (1086). England is thus dominated during three centuries by a small aristocratic minority Norman, speaking his language (what explains the high number of words of French origin in the English language).

Power of Henri Plantagenêt

After the reigns of wire of William the Conqueror, William Rufus (1087 - 1100) and Henri Beauclerc (1100 - 1135), then of the nephew of this last Etienne of Blois (1135 - 1154), all marked by family fights for the succession, Henri II of England, Henri Plantagenêt, count d' Anjou and grandson of Henri Ier become king in 1154.

As he married in 1152 Aliénor of Aquitaine (which had divorced the king de France Louis VII of which it had had two girls), duchess of Aquitaine, Henri II is with the head of an immense territory, which the historians sometimes call “Plantagenêt Empire” (or angevin worsens). It is most important of the vassal of king de France, and it is more powerful than this last, whose royal field is much smaller than the French field of the Plantagenêts. Henri II exerts a strong power. He generalizes the perception of the scutage (royalty replacing the military service) on the barons. In 1164, the Constitutions of Clarendon restore the judgment by jury and aim at controlling the Church of England by reducing the role of the ecclesiastical courts. The Chancellor Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, is opposed to it. After the assassination of this last in 1170, Henri II must make public penitence on its tomb in 1174. The end of the reign of Henri II is obscured by the revolts of its sons.

Revolts of the barons

Richard Ier Lion-hearted (1189 - 1199) takes part in the Third crusade. His/her brother Jean without Ground which succeeds to him loses all his French possessions (except Guyenne), confiscated and conquered by the king of France Philippe Auguste. In conflict with the Innocent pope III which throws the prohibited on England (1208), it must be subjected (1213). The barons raise themselves, and Jean is obliged to accept the Large Charter (June 15th 1215) which limits its capacity: the new taxes will have to be accepted by a council of the barons, prefiguration of the Parlement.

His/her son Henri III must also face the barons led by Simon de Montfort and accept the Provisions of Oxford (June 10th 1258): the king is controlled by a council of fifteen barons, and a Parliament must meet three times per annum. Henri III is untied of this oath by the pope (1261), but it is overcome by the revolted barons with Lewes (1264). He loses any capacity and Simon de Montfort convenes a Parliament composed not only of large noble and ecclesiastical, but also of two knights per county, and for the first time of two middle-class men per city. However a few months later Simon de Monfort are killed with the Bataille of Evesham (1265) by the partisans of the king led by his son Edouard.

The English expansion

The War of the Two-Pinks

With died of Henri V in 1422, its very young person sons Henri VI thus becomes not only king d' Angleterre (his uncles assume regency of it), but also king de France, recognized by part of this country (and crowned in Paris in 1431). But after the ride of Jeanne d' Arc (1429), the French take again the top and the king of France Charles VII ends up gradually conquering all the English possessions on the continent, except Calais, and the Guerre One hundred Year old finishes in 1453.

The weakness and the madness of Henri VI push another branch descending from Edouard III, the Maison of York to dispute the legitimacy of the Maison of Lancaster. The civil war which opposes them and which devastates England during thirty years is called Guerre of the Two-Pinks (1455 - 1485). She knows multiple bounces. In 1461, Edouard of York proclaims king in the place of Henri VI who is restored in 1470 for a few months, but Edouard IV takes again the capacity in 1471. With its death in 1483, his/her brother Richard III seizes the capacity, but it is overcome and killed with the Bataille of Bosworth (1485) by Henri Tudor .succédant with the last king of York, and founds the dynasty of Tudors, under the name of Henri VII.

Modern England

XVIe century

Henri VIII becomes king in 1509, at the seventeen years age. It is known for its prodigality, and its six marriages. The political act perhaps most important of its reign was the passage of the Act of Union of 1536, by which the Wales became a constituent part of England. He was also the founder of the first permanent fleet of the England, the Navy Royal. Henri believed that its marriage with Catherine d' Aragon did not produce wire because it had been married initially with her brother; he thus tried to divorce. The refusing pope, it resulted a separation from it from the church of England of that of Rome, event at the origin of the Anglicanisme, denounced by Elizabeth Barton. But its marriage with Anne Boleyn was also unhappy. Only its marriage with Jeanne Seymour was happy and saw the birth of a heir, Edouard, who succeeded to him.

The second half of the 16th century is known under the name of era élisabéthaine in homage to the reign of the queen Elisabeth Ire. This time of civil appeasing was particularly flourishing for arts and of the letters in England, in particular under the impulse of William Shakespeare, and saw the assertion of the British influence in the world. The war with the Spain starting from 1585 however tarnishes the economic assessment of this time.

The English Revolution S

At the 17th century, the history of England is marked by the fight against the absolutist attempts of the dynasty of Stuart (dynasty of sovereigns which reigned on Scotland (1371-1714) and England (1603-1714)). This fight leads to the reinforcement of the capacities of the Parlement which limits the royal capacity definitively.

Historical context

Since the Middle Ages, the royal capacity is limited by the Parliament which is composed of two legislative assemblies: the House of Lords, where the large laic and ecclesiastical lords sit, and the House of Commons where the elected deputies of the county S and the cities sit. With each time the sovereign needs to raise an army and a new tax, it must consult the Parliament. This one has a right to watch on the national expenditure. The reigns of Jacques I {{er}} (1603 - 1625) and of Charles I {{er}} (1625 - 1649) are marked by increasingly violent tensions, which lead to a civil war and the revolution. This last sovereign wanted to reign as an absolute monarch, and to do without the assent of the Parliament. But this form of government was not appropriate at all to the merchants and to the small English farmers, nor even with the Noblesse which, in England, dealt with trade. Were added to that of the religious problems: the clergy Anglican supported the king whereas many sects, among which that of the puritan (calvinists), supported the Parliament.

The first English revolution and the Republic

Monarchical Restoration

After the death of Cromwell (1658) and the abdication of Richard Cromwell, Charles II, wire of Charles Ier is recalled on the throne and tries in its turn to found the absolutism, in vain. In 1679, the Parliament obliges it to recognize the Habeas corpus (document which guarantees the individual freedom of the citizens).

The Glorious Revolution

Colonial England

As of 1553, the English eliminate the Portuguese traficants on the coasts from current the Nigeria and thus make sure the monopoly of the Traite Blacks.

In 1607, they found the establishment Jamestown in Virginia: to see the article Colonial history of the United States of America. Many English settle then in North America for religious or economic reasons. The English merchants resort then quickly to the slavery of the Indians and the Blacks in order to get and sell raw materials (Coton, Tabac…) in Europe. The aristocracy and the English middle-class implied in colonization grow rich enormously. The English also set up the largest slave traders off-setting of the Blacks towards the foreign colonies. The triangular Commerce considerably will stimulate the manufactures, the manufactured good British exchanging against slaves with the Africans and raw material of the colonies with the Portuguese and the Spaniards. The Iberian colonies form l´empire then invisible British. The Wearing of London, Hull, Exeter, Newcastle but also of Liverpool develop thanks to the growth of the exchanges. To guarantee l´esclavage Blacks, English set up racist theories pseudo-scientists who will be taught in the schools, bringing closer the Blacks to the animals, denying their various cultures and nationalities (Peul, Sarakolé, Igbo, Yoruba ect.)

The Act of Union

In 1707, the Acte of Union seals the association of the Scotland and the England which form from now on the Great Britain. This union was the consequence of a certain number of disasters to the end of the 17th century. Decades of war had brought the famine; no boat other than English could not transport goods to Scotland.

A catastrophic adventure particularly took part to ruin Scotland. A financier had the idea to install a colony with Panama in the idea to make bearing between the Pacifique and the Atlantique. A popular subscription was launched successfully and the July 4th 1698, five boats left the port of Leith. But they did not have any idea of the climatic conditions which awaited them. On the 1200 colonists at the beginning, 400 died.

The company founded for this adventure thus lost the economies of the small subscribers. England agreed to refund the losses in exchange of the Act of Union.

After 1707

England belonging to the Great Britain as from 1707, and of the the United Kingdom as from 1801, to see History of the United Kingdom for its political and military history.

Sources

Bernard Cottret, History of England. Of William the Conqueror at our days, Paris, Tallandier, January 2007.
Jean-Philippe Broom, British Isles with the Middle Ages , Hatchet, 2005, ISBN 9782011449047

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