Download GREAT BRTAIN AND IS ORIGINS

GREAT BRTAIN AND ITS ORIGINS
EARLIEST TIMES - THE ISLAND
However complicated the modern industrial state may be, land and climate affect
life in every country. They affect social and economic life, population and even
politics. Britain is no exception. It has a milder climate than much of Europe
mainland because it lies in the way of the Gulf Stream, which brings warm water
and winds from the Gulf of Mexico. Within Britain there are differences of climate
between north and south, east and west. The countryside is varied also. The north
and west are mountainous and hilly, much of the south and east is fairly flat or lowlying. The south and east have better agricultural conditions. So it is not surprising
that southeast Britain has always been the most populated part of the island. For
this reason it has always had the most political power.
Britain is an island and its history has been closely connected with the sea. Until
modern times it was as easy to travel across water as it was across land, where
roads were frequently unusable. Britain’s history and its strong national sense have
been shaped by the sea.
Britain has not always been an island. It became one after the end of the last Ice
Age. Our first evidence of human life is a few stone tools, dating from one of the
warmer periods of the Ice age, about 250,000 BC. However, the ice advanced again
and Britain became hardly habitable until another milder period, around 50,000
BC. During that time a new type of human being seems to have arrived, who was
the ancestor of the modern British. The people looked similar, but were probably
smaller and had a lifespan of only about 30 years. Around 10,000 BC, as the Ice
Age drew to a close, Britain was peopled by small groups of hunters, gatherers and
fishers. By about 5000BC it had finally become an island and also become heavily
forested.
Around 3000BC Neolithic people crossed the narrow sea from Europe in small
round boats. They probably came from the Iberian Peninsula or the North African
coast. They were small, dark and long-headed people, maybe the forefathers of the
inhabitants of Wales and Cornwall today. These people started building great
circles of earth banks and ditches. Inside they built wooden buildings and
stone circles. These ‘henges’, as they are called, were centres of religious,
political and economic power. By far the most spectacular both then and now is
STONEHENGE, which was built in separate stages over a period of 1000 years.
The precise purpose of Stonehenge remains a mystery but it was certainly a sort of
capital to which the chiefs of other groups came from all over Britain.
After 2400BC new groups of people from Europe arrived in Southeast Britain.
They were round-headed strongly built, taller than the Neolithic man. They
probably spoke an Indo-European language and brought a whole new culture to
Britain, the skills to make bronze tools, replacing the stone ones, barley as a crop,
which could be grown almost everywhere. The local people had more advanced
metalworking skills. A number of well-designed bronze swords have been
found in the Thames valley, where the centre of political power moved. Many
of these swords have been found in river beds, certainly thrown in for
religious reasons. This custom may be the origin of the story of the legendary
King Arthur’s sword which was given to him from out of the water and
thrown back into the water when he died.
THE CELTS
Around 700 BC, another group of people began to arrive. They were tall, had fair
or red hair and blue eyes. These were the Celts who probably came from central
Europe or further East, from southern Russia. They were technically advanced,
they worked with iron and had better weapons. The Celts are important in British
history because they are the ancestors of many of the people of Highland Scotland,
Wales, Ireland and Cornwall today. Celtic languages which have been
continuously used in some areas since that time, are still spoken. The British today
are often described as Anglo-Saxon. It would be better to call them Anglo-Celt.
The Celts traded across tribal borders and trade was probably important for
political and social contact between the tribes. The two main trade centres were
along the Thames River on the south and on the Firth of Forth on the north. For
money the Celts used iron bars until they began to copy the Roman coins they saw
used in Gaul (France).
According to the Romans the Celtic men wore shirts and breeches, and striped
or checked cloaks fastened by a pin. They were also very careful about
cleanliness and neatness. The Celtic tribes were ruled over by a warrior class, of
which the priests seem to have been particularly important members. During the
Celtic period women may have had more independence. When the Romans
invaded Britain two of the largest tribes were ruled by women who fought
from their chariots. The most powerful to stand up to the Romans was a
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woman Boadicea. In AD61 she led her tribe against the Romans. She nearly drove
them from Britain, and she destroyed London the Roman capital, before she was
defeated and killed.
THE ROMANS
The name ‘Britain’ comes from the word “Pretani”, the Greco-Roman word
for the inhabitants of Britain. The Romans mispronounced the word and
called it ‘Britannia’. The Romans had invaded because the Celts of Britain were
working with those of Gaul against them. Under the Celts Britain had become an
important food producer because of the mild climate and their method of
cultivating the heavier and richer land.
The Romans bought the skills of reading and writing to Britain. The written word
was important for spreading ideas and for establishing power. While the Celtic
peasantry remained illiterate, a number of town dwellers spoke Latin and Greek
with ease.
However Latin completely disappeared with the invasion of the Anglo-Saxons in
the 5th c. Britain was probably more literate under the Romans than it was to be
again until the 15th c. Julius Caesar first came to Britain in 55 BC, but it was not
until almost a century later in AD43 than a Roman army actually occupied Britain.
They were determined to conquer the whole island, but they actually established
Romano-British culture across the southern half of Britain. Roman areas were
watched from the towns of Chester, York, and Caerleon (later known as
Wales). The Romans could not conquer “Caledonia” (Scotland), although they
spent over e century trying to do so. At last they built a strong wall along the
northern border, named after the emperor Hadrian who planned it. Now it
marks the border between England and Scotland. The most obvious
characteristic of Roman Britain was its towns, the basis of Roman administration
and civilization. They left about 20 large towns and 5000 inhabitants. Many of the
towns were at first army camps, the Latin word for camp, castra, has
remained in the names of many towns today (chester, cester, caster). These
towns were built with stone and wood and had planned streets markets and
shops. Outside the towns were large farms called “villa”.
THE SAXONS
These Germanic tribes at first just raided Britain, but after 430 AD they began to
settle. They were warlike and illiterate. They came from three powerful tribes. The
Saxons, Angles and Jutes. The British Celts fought the raiders, finally most were
driven in to the mountains in the far west, which was later called “Wealas”,
meaning the land of the foreigners. The strength of the Anglo-Saxon culture is
obvious even today. Days of the week were named after Germanic gods: Tig
(Tuesday), Vodin (Wednesday), Thor (Thursday), Frea (Friday). Some names
of towns date back to that period. The ending –ing meant folk or family.
Reading, Hastings. ‘Ham’ means farm, ‘ton’ means settlement. The Saxons
established a number of Kingdoms Essex, Sussex, Wessex. By the middle of the 7th
c. the most powerful kingdoms were Northumbria, Mercia and Wessex. The
Saxons created institutions which made the English state strong for the next 500
years. The King’s Council called the Witan (senior warriors and churchmen to
whom the king turned for advice) even today the queen has a Privy Council – a
group of advisors on the affairs of state. The Saxons divided the land into new
administrative areas - shires or counties. These shires established by the end
of the 10th c remained almost the same for 1000 years. A king’s local
administrator was appointed – a shire reeve. In each district was a “manor”
or large house. This was a simple building where local villagers came to pay
taxes. The Lord of the manor was a local official, by the beginning of the 11 th
century they were warlords-earls.
CHRISTIANITIY
We cannot know how and when Christianity first reached Britain, but it was
certainly well before it was accepted by the Roman Emperor Constantine in the
early 4thc. In 597 Pope Gregory the Great sent a monk Augustine to re-establish
Christianity in England. He went to Canterbury the capital of the King of Kent.
Augustine became the first Archbishop of Canterbury in 601. Under Roman
influence he was more interested in establishing Christian authority. It was the
Celtic church which brought Christianity to the ordinary people of Britain. The
bishops from the Roman church lived at the courts of the kings which they made
centres of church power across England. The two Christian churches Celtic and
Roman could hardly have been more different in character. One was more
interested in the hearts of modern people and the other was more interested in
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organization. England had become Christian very quickly. By 660 only Sussex and
the Isle of Wight had not accepted the new faith. Saxon kings helped the church to
grow but the church also increased the power of kings, Bishops gave kings their
support which made it harder for royal power to be questioned. The value of
Church approval was of great importance because of the uncertainty of royal
succession. The king who made most use of the church was Alfred the Great, who
ruled Wessex 871-899.
THE VIKINGS
Towards the end of the 8th c. new raiders were tempted by Britain’s wealth. Those
were the Vikings, which probably means “Pirates” or people of the sea. They
came from Norway or Demark. Viking rule was recognized in the east and north of
England. It was called The Danelaw. During the struggle against the Danes, King
Alfred built walled settlements to keep them out. They were called ‘burghs’.
They became prosperous markets towns, and the word, now usually spelt
‘borough’, is one of the endings to place names.
THE EARLY MIDDLE AGES
In 950 England seemed rich and peaceful again after the troubles of the Viking
invasion. Soon afterwards the Danish Vikings started raiding westwards. The
Saxon king decided to pay the Vikings to stay away thus a regular tax system was
introduced for the people to provide the money for armies. It was called Danegeld.
King Edward the Confessor 1040 - 1066 was more interested in the church
than in kingship. He encouraged church building which had been going on for
over a century. By the time he died there was a church in almost every village.
Edward started a new church fit for a king in Westminster, just outside the city of
London. Actually Westminster Abbey was a Norman, not a Saxon building,
because he had spent almost all his life in Normandy. As they name suggested the
Normans were people from the North. They were the children and
grandchildren of Vikings who had captured and settled in Northern France.
They had soon become French in their language and Christian in their religion.
After Edward’s death Duke William of Normandy claimed the throne. After a
successful battle near Hastings he marched towards London, which quickly gave in
because he started to burn villages outside the city. He was crowned king of
England in Westminster Abbey on Christmas Day 1066. A new period had begun.
Although William was crowned king his conquest had only just began, and the
fighting lasted for another five years. There was an Anglo-Saxon rebellion against
the Normans every year until 1070. The Norman army was a true army of
occupation for 20 years. The north was particularly hard to control and the Norman
army had no mercy. When the Saxons fought back, the Normans burnt, destroyed
and killed. Between Durham and York not a single house was left standing, and it
took a century for the north to recover. By 1086 only two of the great landlords and
two bishops were Saxon. Over 4000 Saxon landlords were replaced by 200
Norman ones.
FEUDALISM
In England as each new area of land was captured William gave part of it as a
reward to his captains. Of all the farmland of England William gave half to the
Norman nobles, a quarter to the Church, and kept a fifth to himself. He
organized his English kingdom according to the feudal system which had already
begun to develop in England before his arrival. Feudalism comes from French
‘feu’, which the Normans used to refer to land held in return for duty or
service to a lord. The central idea was that all land was owned by the king but
it was held by others, called ‘vassals’ in return for services and goods. The
king gave large estates to his nobles in return for a promise to serve him in
war for up to 40 days. There were 2 basic principles to feudalism: every man
had a lord and every lord had land. The king was connected through this ‘chain’
of people to the lowest man in the country. At each level a man had to promise
loyalty and service to his lord. This promise was usually made with the lord sitting
on his chair and his vassal kneeling before him, his hands placed between those of
his lord. This was called ‘homage’ and has remained part of the coronation
ceremony of British Kings and queens until know.
William controlled two large areas: Normandy which he had been given by his
father, and England, which he had won in war. The only difference was that as
Duke of Normandy he had to recognize the King of France as his lord whereas in
England he was king with no lord above him. When William died, in 1087 he left
Normandy and England to his elder sons. The eldest Robert went to fight the
Muslims for the Holy Land, then William II took charge of the two kingdoms.
However he died in a hunting accident, so the third brother Henry knew that if he
wanted the English crown he would have to act very quickly.
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In 1106 Henry invaded Normandy and captured Robert, Normandy and England
were reunited under one ruler.
Then there were the Plantagenets, Henry II, Richard (lion-heart) his rebellious son,
who was everyone’s idea of the perfect feudal king. He went to the Holy Land to
make war on the Muslims and he fought with skills, courage and honour. On his
way back he was captured by the Duke of Austria. It took two years for England to
pay the ransom money. Shortly after, in 1199, Richard was killed in France. Then
followed his brother John who had already made himself unpopular with all groups
of people. In 1215 John hoped to recapture Normandy. He called on his lords to
fight for him but they no longer trusted him. They were joined by the merchants
and John was forced to sign a new agreement. It was known as “The Magna
Carta” and was an important symbol of political freedom. The king promised
all ‘freemen’ protection from his officers and the right to a fair and legal trial.
At that time ¼ of the English were freemen. Hundreds of years later Magna
Carta was used by Parliament to protect itself from a powerful king.
Every king recognized The Magna Carta until The Middle Ages ended in disorder
and a new kind of monarchy came into being in the 16th century.
THE LATE MIDDLE AGES and THE AGE OF CHIVALRY
In the 14th c there followed continuous wars with Scotland and France. England’s
wish to control Scotland had suffered a major setback in 1314. After other
unsuccessful attempts England gave up its claims to overlordship of Scotland in
1328. The repeated attempts of English kings to control Scotland had led to the
Scots to look for allies, so they turned to the obvious ally France. Their Auld
Alliance lasted into the 16th c.
England’s troubles with France resulted from the French King’s growing authority
in France and his determination to control all his vassals even the greatest of them.
Two of the most troublesome were the Duke of Burgundy, and the English king
who was still the King of France’s vassal as Duke of Aquitaine. To make his
position stronger the King of France began to interfere with English trade. Edward
III declared war on France in 1337. His excuse was a bold one: he claimed the
right to the French Crown. The war Edward began, later called the Hundred
Years War, did not finally end until 1453 with the English crown losing all its
possessions in France except for Calais, a northern French port.
Edward III and his eldest son, the Black prince, were greatly admired in England
for their courage on the battlefield and their courtly manners. During the reign of
Edward interest grew in the legendary king Arthur. Arthur was probably a Celtic
ruler who fought the Anglo-Saxons. The 14th c legend created around him included
both the imagined magic and mystery of the Celts, and also the knightly values of
the Court of Edward III. According to the Code of Chivalry, the perfect knight
fought for his good name if insulted, served God and the King and defended
any lady in need “A Damsel in Distress”. The ideas were expressed in the legend
of the Round table, around which King Arthur and his knights sat in Holy
Brotherhood. The Order of the Garter was founded in 1348 after an incident at
court. Edward chose as members another 24 knights, the same number as the
legendary King Arthur had chosen. They met once a year on St George’s Day at
Windsor Castle, where King Arthur’s Round Table was supposed to have been.
The custom is still followed and “let him be ashamed who sees wrong in it” is still
the motto of the royal family. Chivalry was a useful way of persuading men to
fight by creating the idea that war was a noble and glorious thing. War could also
be profitable but in fact cruelty, death, destruction and theft were the reality of war
as they are today.
The 14th century was disastrous for Britain as well as for most of Europe because
of the effect of wars and plagues. Probably one third of Europe’s population died
of plague. In the following century a king or a king’s eldest son was killed 1461,
1471, 1483, 1485. But in the end the nobles destroyed themselves and disappeared
as a class.
THE WAR OF THE ROSES
By the end of the 14th c. England was beginning to lose an extremely costly war. In
1450 the king was Henry VI, who had become king as a baby and grew up to be
simple-minded and book-loving. He was a civilized and gentle man, founded two
places of learning that still exist, Eton College not far from London and King’s
college in Cambridge. However, his simple-mindedness gave way to periods of
mental illness.
The discontented nobility were divided between those who remained loyal to
Henry VI, the “Lancastraians” and those who supported the Duke of York, the
“Yorkists”. The Duke of York was the son of the earl of March who had lost the
competition for the throne. In 1460 the Duke of York claimed the throne for
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himself but after his death in Battle his son Edward won the throne. Edward IV put
Henry into The Tower of London. But nine years later a new Lancastrian army
rescued Henry and chased Edward out of the country. In 1471 Edward returned to
England, defeated the Lancastrians and was safe on the throne. The war might have
ended if his sons had been old enough to rule. When Edward IV died in 1483, his
own two sons 12-year-old Edward V and his younger brother were put in The
Tower by Richard of Gloucester. He took the crown and became Richard III. A
month later the two princes were murdered. William Shakespeare’ play written a
century later accuses Richard of murder and cruelty and everyone believed it.
Richard III was not popular, Both Lancastraian and Yorkists disliked him. So in
1485 a challenger with a very distant claim to royal blood through John of Gaunt
landed in Britain with the help of Breton soldiers to claim the throne. His name
was Henry Tudor, Duke of Richmond and he was half Welsh. Half of Richard’s
army changed sides, and the battle quickly ended in his defeat and death. Henry
Tudor was crowned immediately on the battlefield.
The war had finally ended. Much later in the 19th c. the novelist Sir Walter Scott
named these wars the “War of the Roses”, because York’s symbol was a white rose
and Lancaster’s a red one.
THE TUDORS
The century of Tudor rule (1485-1603) is often thought of as a most glorious
period in English history. Henry VII built the foundations of a wealthy nation state
and powerful monarchy. His son, Henry VIII, kept a magnificent court, and
made the Church of England truly English by breaking away from the Roman
Catholic Church. Finally, his daughter Elizabeth brought glory to the new state by
defeating the powerful navy of Spain, the greatest European power of that time.
During the Tudor age England experienced one of the greatest artistic periods in its
history.
Henry VII is less well known but he was important in establishing the new
monarchy. He had the same ideas and opinions as the growing class of merchants
and gentleman farmers, and he based royal power on good business sense. He
firmly believed that war and glory were bad for business, and that business was
good for the state. He avoided quarrels with either Scotland or France. Henry VII
made an important trade agreement with the Netherlands which allowed English
trade to grow again. Many of the old nobility had died or been defeated in the
recent wars, and their lands had gone to the king. This means he had more power
and money than earlier kings. In order to establish his authority beyond question he
forbade anyone, except himself to keep armed men. When Henry died in 1509 he
left behind the huge total of 2 million, about 15 years’ worth of income. The only
thing he was happy to spend money freely was the building of ships for a merchant
fleet. He understood that England’s future wealth would depend on international
trade.
THE REFORMATION
Henry VIII was quite unlike his father. He was cruel, wasteful of money and
interested in pleasing himself. He wanted to become an important influence in
European politics. But much had happened in Europe since England had given up
its territories in France. France was now more powerful and Spain was even more
powerful, because it was united with the Holy Roman Empire. Henry spent so
much on maintaining a court and on wars from which England had little to gain
and gold and silver from newly discovered America added to economic inflation.
Henry VIII was always looking for new sources of money. The Church was still a
great landowner, and being an international organization, he could not
completely control it. Henry VIII was notorious with his 6 wives, divorcing some
and beheading others in attempt to provide an heir to the throne, but for political
reasons too. In 1531 Henry persuaded the bishops to make him Head of the Church
in England and this became Law after Parliament passed the Act of Supremacy
in1531. Henry’s break with Rome was purely political. He had simply wanted
to control the Church and to keep its wealth in his own kingdom. He did not
approve of the new ideas of Reformation Protestantism introduced by Martin
Luther in Germany and John Calvin in Geneva. Henry had earlier written a
book criticizing Luther’s teaching and the pope had rewarded him with the
title Fidei Defensor, Defender of the Faith. The letters “F.D.” are still to be
found on every British coin. He proved that his break with Rome was neither a
religious nor a diplomatic disaster. He remained loyal to Catholic religious
teaching and executed Protestants who refused to accept it. Henry died in 1547,
leaving behind his sixth wife Catherine Parr and his three children. Mary, the eldest
daughter of Catherine of Aragon, Elisabeth, the daughter of his second wife Anne
Boleyn, and 9 year old Edward the son of Jane Seymour, the only wife he had
really loved, but who had died giving birth to his only son.
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The new nobility were keen Protestant reformers because they had benefited from
the sale of monastery lands. Most English people still believed in the old Catholic
religion. Mary became queen when Edward, aged 16, died in 1553. For political
and family reasons she chose to marry King Philip of Spain. She then began
burning Protestants. 300 people died in this way during her 5 year reign, after
which she was notoriously known as Bloody Mary. Elizabeth, Mary’s sister was
lucky to become queen when Mary died in 1558. She wanted to find a peaceful
answer to the problems of the English Reformation. Elizabeth wanted to bring
together those parts of English society which were in religious disagreement. She
wanted to make England prosperous. And for her 40 years’ reign Elizabeth
succeeded.
Elizabeth considered trade the most important foreign policy. Spain was
recognized as the main trade rival and enemy. During her rain Elizabeth
followed two policies. She encouraged English sailors to attack and destroy
Spanish ships bringing silver, gold and other treasures from the newly
discovered continent of America. The treasures were shared with the queen, but
she spent the money on building warships and guns, making English guns the best
in Europe. Thus British fleet was the most powerful after defeating the Spanish
armada in 1587. She also encouraged traders to settle abroad and to create
colonies. The second policy led directly to Britain’s colonial empire of the 18th and
19th centuries.
After Elizabeth’s death in 1603 the closest relative to succeed to the throne was
James VI, the Scottish King. He was the son of Mary Stuart - Queen of Scotland
who had been put in the Tower and finally executed for high treason. This is the
year of the Union of England and Scotland.
THE STUARTS
The Stuart monarchs, from James I onwards, were less successful than the Tudors.
They quarreled with Parliament and this resulted in civil war. The only king of
England ever to be tried and executed was a Stuart. The republic that followed was
even more unsuccessful and by popular demand the dead king’s son was called
back to the throne. Another Stuart king was driven from his thrown by his own
daughter and her Dutch husband, William of Orange. William became king by
Parliament’s election, not by right of birth. When the last Stuart, Queen Anne
died in 1714, the monarchy was no longer absolutely powerful, it had become
a “parliamentary monarchy” controlled by constitution. The important changes
resulted from a basic change in society. During the 17th century economic power
moved even faster into the hands of the merchant and landowning farmer classes.
The crown could no longer raise money or govern without their cooperation. These
groups were represented by the House of Commons. In return for money the
Commons demanded political power. The political developments of the period also
resulted from basic changes in thinking. By the 18th century a new age of reason
and science had arrived.
In 1764 there was a serious quarrel over taxation between the British
government and its colonies in America. It continued to think of the colonists
as British subjects. The war in America lasted from 1775 until 1783. The
government had no respect for the politics of the colonists, nor for their
fighting ability. The result was a disastrous defeat for the British government.
It lost everything except for Canada.
THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION
Several influences came together at the same time to revolutionize British
Industry: money, labour, a greater demand for goods, new power and better
transport.
By the end of the 18th century some families had made huge private fortunes.
Growing merchant banks helped put this money to use. Increased food production
made it possible to feed large populations in the new towns. These were the people
who had lost their land through enclosures and were looking for work. Simple
machines had already been invented for basic jobs. They could make large
quantities of simple goods quickly and cheaply so that mass production became
possible for the first time. The use of coal for changing iron ore into good quality
iron or steel was perfected and this made Britain the leading iron producer in
Europe. That made it possible to manufacture new machinery for other industries.
One invention led to another and increased production in one area led to increased
productions in others.
REFERENCE: McDowall, D: AN ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF BRITAIN,
Longman, UK,
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