Download The End of Year Project

TALLINNA PRANTSUSE LÜTSEUM
TALLINN FRENCH SCHOOL
The End of Year Project
Kristine Leetberg
XB
TALLINN 2011
Contents
1. Prehistoric Britain .......................................... 3
2. Roman Britain ................................................ 4
3. Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms................................... 5
4. The Early Middle Ages .................................... 6
5. The reign of Henty II, Richard I, John I Magna
Carta and the Decline of Feudalism ................... 7
6. England under the Reign of Henry III and
Edward I ............................................................. 8
100 Years’ War ................................................... 8
7. The Age of Chivalry ........................................ 9
The Poor in Revolt .............................................. 9
8. The Crisis of Kingship ................................... 10
the Wars of the Roses ...................................... 10
9. The Tudors ................................................... 11
10. The Stuarts ................................................. 13
11. The Georgian Age ....................................... 15
12. The Victorian Age ....................................... 17
13. The Edwardian Age .................................... 18
14. Post-War Years ........................................... 19
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1. Prehistoric Britain
 They were great warriors and took tremendous
pride in their appearance in battle.
 Part of the European land mass until the end of
the last Ice Age, around 6000 BC.
 3000 BC – inhabited by the Iberians, who built
the first roads, dwellings and megalithic
monuments.
 Stonehenge: can be connected with the sun and
the passing of the seasons.
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The stonehenge
The Bronze Age reached Britain between 2100 –
1650 BC.
Celts – Invaded Britain in two waves: the Gaels
in 600 BC and Cymri or Britons around 300 BC.
Lived in villages, there was no private property,
no classes, no exploitation.
Built forts on hilltops and protected them with
ditches and ramparts.
Created large-scale artwork, on the chalk hills of
southern England.
A Celt and a Saxon ready for a battle
 The Celtic tribes didn’t see themselves as one
people at the time.
 The Romans called these people Britons.
 By the time Romans reached Britain, Celtic had
almost entirely replaced Britain’s earlier
language.
 One of the Celtic words still in use nowadays is
‘avon’ (river).
The church of Stratford-on-Avon
The White Horse of Uffington – a large-scale
artwork made by the Celts.
 The basic unit of family life was the clan, a sort
of extended family.
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2. Roman Britain
 2000 years ago while the Celts were still living in
tribes the Romans were the most powerful
people in the world.
 A slave society divided into antagonistic classes
– the slaves and the slave owners.
 Conquered all the countries around.
 Julius Ceasar made two raids (55 and 54 BC)
across the Channel to punish the Britons for
helping their kith and kin against him.
 Ceasar had to withdraw his soldiers and the
proper invasion didn’t start until 43 AD under
the emperor Claudius.
 The Celts were not turned into slaves but they
had to pay heavy taxes and work for the
conquerors.
Ceasar’s first raid to Britain
 The Iceni joined forces to defeat a rival tribe, but
the Romans turned on the Iceni, torturing
Queen Boudicca.
 In AD 61 her followers burned down London,
Colchester and St Albans.
 The queen took poison rather to submit.
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Queen Boudicca
 Romans built a network of towns, forts and
camps connected by paved roads.
 Hadrian’s Wall was built in 122 to keep out the
raiding Picts and Scots.
Hadrian’s Wall
 Place names ending in –caster, or
–chester
reveal the places of Roman military camps.
 The Roman baths in Bath, known as Aquae Sulis,
were built between the 1st and 4th centuries
around a hot spring.
 Roman soldiers and traders brought Christianity,
and in the 4th century the Christian Church was
established in Britain.
3. Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms
 By the mid-5th century, Angles, Saxons and Jutes
from Denmark and Northern Germany started
to raid Britain.
 They destroyed Roman villas, preferring to live
in small farming communities.
 By the 7th century towns began to spring up,
many towns have names ending in ‘ham’(AngloSaxon ‘home’)
 The Angles gave England the name and the
Saxons the language and mythology.
 They were an agricultural people, villages were
self-sufficient.
 Arable-farming, cattle-breeding and travelling
pedlars.
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Anglo-Saxon village
The legends about King Arthur are based on a
Celtic leader who defended his country against
Saxon invasion.
In 579 St Augustine from Rome became the
Archbishop of Canterbury – the beginning of the
conversion to Christianity.
The Roman monks helped to spread Roman
culture in the country.
The Venerable Bede wrote “Ecclesiastical
History of the English People”.
“Ecclesiastical History of the English People”
 From that age is the heroic epic poem
“Beowulf”.
 King Egbert became the 1st king of England – the
small kingdoms were united to form one
kingdom which was called England.
 During the 9th and 10th centuries more and more
Vikings came, first to plunder, then to stay.
 The ending ‘–by’ is the Danish word for ‘town’.
 Vikings came from Denmark, Norway and
Sweden.
 Vikings settled in Scotland and Eastern England.
In Ireland they founded Dublin.
 They lived in tribes and were pagans.
 Very skilful seamen
A Viking longboat
 In 871 the Danes invaded Wessex.
 Under the reign of King Alfred, Wessex became
the centre of resistance against invaders.
4. The Early Middle Ages
 After the Norman conquest had begun, there
was an Anglo-Saxon rebellion every year until
1070.
 William, and the kings after him, thought of
England as their personal property.
 Organised the kingdom according to the feudal
system.
 Made a complete economic survey called the
“Domesday” Book.
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King Alfred
The British Navy was built and many places
fortified.
The Danes were allowed to settle in the
northern boundary that separated the Danelaw
from Wessex. They made York their capital.
Alfred ordered that the learned men should
begin to write a history of England – The AngloSaxon Chronicle gives an overview of 1,200
years of English history.
In 1016 Engkand was qonquered by the Danish
king Cnut.
He divided England into territorial lordships,
ended the practice of paying Danegeld and was
an effective ruler.
Hus sons did not reign long and the throne was
passed to Edward the Confessor.
The “Domesday” Book
 He had to recognize the king of France as his
lord, while there was no lord above him in
England.
 When he died, he left Normandy to Robert an
England to William.
 The third son, Henry, unfairly took the throne
and king’s treasury.
 In 1106 he reunited Normandy and England.
 His son was drowned, so his daughter Matilda
would follow him.
 He married Matilda to Geoffrey Plantagenet, but
the throne was seized by Stephen of Blois.
 Matilda invaded England and that lead to a
terrible civil war.
 In 1153 they agreed that the latter could keep
the throne if Matilda’s son Henry could succeed
him.
Matilda
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5. The reign of Henty II, Richard I, John I Magna
Carta and the Decline of Feudalism
 Henry II inherited Normandy and the English
kingdom from his mother and Anjou, Maine and
Tourraine from his father and acquired vast
areas in France through his wife Eleanor of
Aquitaine.
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King Henry II of England
He was very strong, which enabled him to travel
a lot.
He quarreled a lot with his wife and his sons,
Richard and John, took Eleanor’s side.
This is also the period of the struggle between
the Church and the state.
It had started in 1066, when William had
created Norman bishops and given land to
them. The crisis came when Henry II appointed
Thomas Becket Archbishop of Canterbury in
1162.
After Becket’s canonization Canterbury became
a major centre of pilgrimage.
Henry’s son Richard reigned for 10 years and
was very popular.
He was educated, spent a lot of time in the Holy
Land and got the nickname “Coeur de Lion”.
His younger brother John I (Lackland) inherited
the throne after his death.
He was very unpopular because he had taxed
heavily his nobles but had not protected their
land in France.
He had a quarrel with the Pope in 1209.
 He was forced to sign Magna Carta in 1215. It
contained 63 clauses defining the rights and
responsibilities of the crown and its subjects, it
also limited the king’s power.
Magna Carta
 Feudalism was beginning to weaken, but it took
another 300 years before it disappeared
completely.
 During John’s reign the 1st stone bridge across
the Thames was completed in 1206, it included
a drawbridge, a double row of house and some
140 shops.
6. England under the Reign of Henry III and
Edward I
100 Years’ War
 Henry II reigned for a long time but was not able
to get back his father’s lands in France and
spent heavily.
 He inspired the improvements to Westminster
Abbey and construction of Salisbury Cathedral.
King Edward III
Westminster Abbey
 During his time the 1st parliament was
summoned in 1265.
 His son Edward I was interested in bringing the
rest of Britain under his control, he brought
together the 1st real parliament, annexed Wales
to England in 1282 and brought Scotland under
English control for a time.
 Tried to have good relations with Philip IV and
they decided to marry their children(Isabella +
Edward II)
 Isabella together with his lover Roger forced
Edward to abdicate in favour of his 14-year-old
son(Edward III) in 1327.
 Isabella and Roger ruled in the name of Edward
III, but in 1330 Edward seized the power.
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 Edward III restored royal authority, his reign saw
vital developments in military legislature and
government.
 His reign was dominated by the 100 Years’ War
(1337-1453) with France that started with his
claim to the throne.
 The war began well for England and Henry IV
was crowned King of France, but with the help
of Joan of Arc the French went on winning and
when the war ended in 1453, England had lost
all its French possessions except Calais.
 During the war the English noblemen and kings
started to speak English.
 Geoffrey Chaucer’s “Canterbury Tales” and the
Bible was translated into English
Canterbury Tales
 Winchester College was established in 1382,
giving the start to lay education.
 Oxford University is the oldest in the Englishspeaking world.
7. The Age of Chivalry
The Poor in Revolt
 Edward III was also the founder of the Order of
the Garter, from a legend also comes the motto
of the royal family: Honi soit qui mal y pense.
The symbols of the Order of the Garter
 The English never rebelled against Edward III,
though he was an expensive king.
 His grandson, Richard II, became king at the age
of 11, so others governed for him.
 When a new taxed was introduced, it caused
The Peasants’ Revolt in East Anglia and Kent.
 When the leader Wat Tyler was killed, Richard
managed to calm down the angry crowd and his
officers killed the other leading rebels.
 During the next century discontent with the
Church also grew, the most important reason
being the greed of the Church.
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8. The Crisis of Kingship
the Wars of the Roses
 When Richard II became king he was placed
under the control of his uncle John, duke of
Lancaster, who prepared the throne for his son
Henry (IV).
 There was another possible successor – the son
of his uncle Edmund, the Duke of York.
 Although he passed the crown to his son Henry
V, 50 years later the nobility were divided
between those who remained loyal to Henry VI,
the “Lancastrians”, and those who supported
the duke of York, the “Yorkists”.
 The House of York was identified with a white
rose, Lancaster with a red rose.
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The roses of Lancaster and York
The war began in 1455 with the battle of Saint
Albans.
Six years later, the York forces crushed the
Lancaster army and Edward of York became king
as Edward IV.
Edward V succeeded him at the age of 12.
Richard, the duke of Gloucester, uncle of the
young king, had Edward and his little brother
killed in the Tower of London and became king
Richard III.
He was the last king of the House of York and
the last of the Plantagenet dynasty.
King Richard III
 At Bosworth Field Henry Tudor, a descendant of
the House of Lancaster, defeated the royal army
and after the battle was crowned King Henry VII.
 Henry married Edward IV’s daughter and so at
last united the rival houses of Lancaster and
York.
 “A horse, a horse! My kingdom for a horse!”
from Shakespeare’s Richard III (1594) - King
Richard has lost his horse on the battlefield, he
continues to battle but it is hopeless.
 This quotation is sometimes now repeated
when somebody is in need of some unimportant
item.
9. The Tudors
 Henry VII was born in Wales in 1457. His father
was Edmund Tudor and mother Lady Margaret
Beaufort.
 Henry's Lancastrian forces defeated Richard's
Yorkist army at the Battle of Bosworth on 22nd
August 1485.
 By killing Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth
Henry VII ended the Wars of the Roses.
 His successors symbolized the unity by use of a
red rose with white outer petals, the “Tudor”
rose.
The “Tudor” rose
 He avoided quarrels.
 He arranged a marriage between his son Arthur
and Catherine of Aragon.
 He also arranged a marriage between Margaret
and James VI of Scotland.
 When his son Henry VIII came to the throne, he
married Catherine.
 Henry wanted a son, so he had many more
wives: Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Anne of
Cleves, Catherine Howard and Catherine Parr.
Henry VIII and his wives
 At Henry’s insistence, Prliament passed two acts
that made the break with Roman Catholic
Church complete. One declared that the Pope
had no authority in England, the other made the
Church of England a separate institution.
 The two acts officially established the
Reformation in England.
 Henry’s break with Rome was purely political he simply wanted to control the Church and
keep its wealth in his own kingdom.
 Henry granted the chief minister’s position to
Thomas Cromwell.
 Together they made a complete survey of
Church property to make money but also to be
popular with the rising classes
 They closed more than 500 monasteries and
other religious houses.
The ruins of Fountains Abbey
 When Henry died in 1547, his 9-year-old son, a
child dogged by illness, became king as Edward
VI.
 He died at the age of 16 and named Jane Gray
his successor.
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 Lady Jane is known as The Nine Days’ Queen,
the Privy Council proclaimed Mary, a Roman
Catholic as queen.
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Bloody Mary
Mary married King Philip of Spain.
She enacted a policy of persecution against
Protestants and restored the papal authority
over the Church of England.
She is called “Bloody Mary”.
When she died in 1558, her half-sister Elizabeth
became queen.
She wanted a peaceful answer to the problems,
led England back to Protestantism and made
herself the head of the Church.
Mary Stuart (a Catholic) was the heir to the
English throne.
By 1585 most English people believed that to be
a Catholic was to be an enemy of England.
The defeat of the Spanish Armada is one of the
most famous events in English history and
arguably Queen Elizabeth’s finest hour.
The Spanish Armada
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 Her reign was also a prosperous period and
extremely important culturally.
10. The Stuarts
 Mary Queen of Scots claimed the crowns of four
nations: Scotland, France, England and Ireland.
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Mary Stuart
She became queen when she was just a week
old.
Mary was sent to France and married François.
When he died, Mary returned to Scotland.
She married Lord Darnley, who was later killed.
Her later marriages were unpopular and she was
forced to abdicate in favour of her one-year-old
son. She fled to England and was later
executed.
Her son James started to rule as James VI of
Scotland upon Elizabeth’s death in 1603, who
left him a huge debt.
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Guy Fawkes and other organizers of the
Gunpowder Plot
Under James the ‘golden age’ of Elizabethan
culture continued.
The Authorised King James’s Version of the Bible
in 1611.
Charles I was born as the second son of James
and Anne of Denmark.
He married Henrietta Maria of France.
His reign began with the ongoing tension with
Parliament over money.
He dissolved parliament three times.
The country split between the supporters of the
king (Cavaliers) and supporters of the
Parliament (Roundheads).
The Cavaliers
 The Civil war – at Edgehill on the Cotswolds in
1642.
 In 1645 the Royalist army was defeated by a
“model” army that Oliver Cromwell had created.
James VI of Scotland
 He insisted that the king alone had “the divine
right” to make decisions.
 His extravagant spending habits and nonchalant
ignoring of the nobility’s grievances kept king
and Parliament constantly at odds.
 The basis of the Gunpowder Plot (November 5,
1605) was religious dissension.
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Oliver Cromwell
Charles was put on trial in 1649.
Cromwell dissolved Parliament – the start of
England’s only period of dictatorship that lasted
until 1660.
After his death, his son Richard succeeded him.
One of the army commanders arranged for free
elections and invited Charles II to return from
exile.
Charles II
The new king was careful to make peace with
his father’s enemies, only those who had been
responsible for the execution of Charles I, were
punished.
He also resulted in the first political parties in
Britain - the “Whigs” and “Tories”.
The Plague in 1665 and the Great Fire of London
in 1666.
His brother James II succeeded him.
He was catholic and the leading politicians were
looking forward to the succession of his
daughter Mary, who was a protestant and who
had married William of Orange.
William of Orange
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 William defeated James.
 Parliament made William king by choice not by
inheritance.
 All these political events are described as the
Glorious Revolution.
 William was unpopular but Mary was very
popular.
 William ruled alone upon 1702 when Mary’s
sister, Anne, became queen.
 She was the 1st monarch to rule over the
Kingdom of Great Britain.
 She had 17 children by George of Denmark, but
none survived.
 During her reign, parliamentary elections had a
decisive effect on the life of the country for the
1st time.
11. The Georgian Age
 The growth of the industries.
 Britain had the strongest navy in the world.
 For the 1st time, it was the king’s ministers who
were the real policy and decision-makers.
 While a few people became richer, many others
lost their land, their homes and their way of life,
due to enclosures.
 The invention of machinery created factories.
 In France the misery of the poor and the power
of the trading classes led to a revolution in 1789.
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The French Revolution
Britain was saved partly by the high level of local
control of the ruling class and by Methodism.
Methodism was careful to deal only with
heavenly matters.
When Queen Anne died in 1714, James II’s son
returned to Britain as James III.
James was unwilling to change his mind and he
would not give up his religion. He tried to win
the throne by force.
In 1715 a rebellion started against George I.
Stuart supporters were known as “Jacobites”.
The new king only spoke German and was not
very interested in his kingdom.
Walpole came to power as a result of his
financial ability.
Walpole
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 In 1694 a group of financiers who lent to the
government decided to establish a bank, and
the government agreed to lend from it alone.
 Government ministers worked together in a
small group – the “Cabinet”. Any minister who
disagreed deeply with other Cabinet members
was expected to resign.
 The limits to monarchy: the king could not be a
Catholic, could not remove or change laws, was
dependent on P.
 Walpole put taxes on luxury goods.
 One of his political enemies was Lord Chatam,
who feared that an alliance with Spain would
give France a trade advantage over Britain.
 War with France broke out in 1756. It went on
all over the world and gave the British control
over important trades.
 India became the “jewel in the crown”.
 The British had a very high opinion of
themselves.
 George III came to throne in 1760.
 In 1763 he made peace with France.
 He was the first Hanoverian king who spoke
without an accent.
 In 1764 there was a serious quarrel over
taxation between Britain and America.
 In 1773 – “the Boston tea party”.
The Boston tea party
 The American war of Independence lasted from
1775 – 1783, In July 1776 – a formal Declaration
of Independence.
 Many British politicians openly supported the
colonists – “Radicals”.
 In 1793 attempt to crush French Republic by 1st
coalition - Austria, Sardinia, Naples, Prussia,
Spain, GB.
 The 2nd coalition in 1798 – Austria, GB, Naples,
Ottoman Empire, Portugal, Russia, Sweden and
others.
 In 1799 Napoleon seized control of the French
government.
 He declared France an Empire in 1804 and
crowned himself Emperor.
 Nelson won brilliant victories over the French
navy – in Trafalgar in 1805.
The battle of Trafalgar
 Wellington invaded France and Napoleon
surrendered in 1814. W, with the help of a
Prussian army, defeated Napoleon at Waterloo
in 1815.
 When peace was made in 1815, there was no
longer such need for factory-made goods and
many lost their jobs.
 A new law made the poor live in workhouses.
The emergence of cities.
 When the Tories collapsed over the question of
Catholic Emancipation in 1829, the Whigs were
able to take over, and they were willing to
implement parliamentary reform.
 Led by Earl Grey, the Whigs wanted to enact a
moderate reform that would make the system
fairer without actually giving in to the demands
of the working classes.
William IV
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 When George IV died in 1830, his more liberal
brother William IV came to the throne.
 It took a long time for the Great Reform Act to
become law. It increased the number of
individuals entitled to vote.
 The King, supporting the reformers, was the
only king to keep his throne at the time.
12. The Victorian Age
 Victoria became queen at the age of 18 and
married at the age of 23 a German prince Albert
 When Albert died V. went into deep and
permanent mourning.
The Great Exhibition
 Christianity encouraged people to act in certain
ways – Victorian values.
 Writers: Charles Dickens, William Thackeray,
Thomas Hardy, Oscar Wilde, Stevenson, Bronte
sisters, Kipling.
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Queen Victoria and Prince Albert
During this time Britain ruled one fifth of the
world’s surface- ‘the Empire, where sun never
sets’.
Florence Nithingale organized proper nursing in
the Crimean War.
In 1857, Britain was threatened by a mutiny.
The use of steam-powered machines led to a
huge increase in the number of factories.
 All those who needed help had to go to a
workhouse where the conditions were made
deliberately harsh.
 Education was developed, In 1870 State
Elementary Schools were introduced for
children aged 5-10, it was made free in 1890.
 In 1851, Albert planned the Great Exhibition.
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13. The Edwardian Age
 Edward VII had been waiting long to get to the
throne.
Edward VII
 The Edwardian period is sometimes extended.
 Edward was a part of fashionable elite and had
many scandals.
 During that time the British class system was
very rigid.
 In 1903 Emmeline Pankhurst founded the
Women’s Social and Political Union that fought
for women’s suffrage.
 Corresponds to the French Belle Époque period.
 The church no longer played a vital role.
 A military rivalry grew between GB and
Germany.
 In May 1910 E VII was succeeded by his son
George V.
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George V
 George changed his family name to Windsor.
 His reign saw the First World War, the Russian
Revolution, the Irish troubles, votes for women,
the general strike etc.
 The assassination of Archduke Ferdinand started
WW I.
 Country was unprepared for the power of the
modern weapons.
14. Post-War Years
 The Treaty of Versailles gave Britain several
German and Turkish colonies.
The Treaty of Versailles
 In 1931 Parliament passed a statute that
recognized
the
dominions’
complete
independence from Britain.
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