Copyright

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Author: Robert Peal

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Contents

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Introduction

English History

10,000 BC | Prehistoric England

3,000 BC | Stonehenge

AD 43 | The Romans

AD 61 | Boudicca

410 | Legend of King Arthur

400s | Anglo-Saxons

597 | The Arrival of Christianity

793 | Viking Raids

899 | Alfred the Great

937 | Rex Angloram

1042 | Edward the Confessor

1066 | King Harold

1066 | Battle of Hastings

1060s and 70s | Norman Conquest

1086 | Domesday Book

1170 | Murder of Thomas Becket

1204 | Eleanor of Aquitaine

1215 | King John and the Magna Carta

1200s | Robin Hood

1265 | The first Parliament

1283 | The Conquest of Wales

1337 | The Hundred Years War

1348 | Order of the Garter

1348 | The Black Death

1381 | The Peasants’ Revolt

1387 | The Canterbury Tales

1415 | Agincourt

1459 | The Wars of the Roses

1483 | The Princes in the Tower

1485 | The Battle of Bosworth Field

1509 | Henry VIII

1534 | Anne Boleyn

1534 | The English Reformation

1547 | Henry VIII’s death

1553 | Mary I and the Counter-Reformation

1558 | Elizabeth I

1580 | Sir Francis Drake

1587 | Mary Queen of Scots

1588 | The Spanish Armada

1590 | Shakespeare

1603 | King James VI and I

1605 | The Gunpowder Plot

1629 | Charles I and Parliament

1642 | The English Civil War

1649 | Regicide

1649 | Cromwell’s Commonwealth

1660| Restoration

1666 | Great Fire of London

1687 | Sir Isaac Newton

1688 | The Glorious Revolution

1707 | The Act of Union

1714 | The House of Hanover

1721 | Britain’s First Prime Minister

1739 | Highwaymen

1740 | Rule, Britannia!

1745 | Jacobite Uprising

1755 | Dr Johnson’s Dictionary

1763 | The Seven Years War

1700s | Food and Empire

1770 | Captain Cook and Australia

1772 | The Slave Trade

1775 | Britain’s First Factories

1776 | American Revolution

1776 | Steam Engine

1788 | Mad King George

1791 | Rights of Man

1805 | The Battle of Trafalgar

1813 | Jane Austen

1815 | Duke of Wellington

1829 | The Metropolitan Police Force

1830 | The Railway Age

1833 | Child Labour

1833 | Abolition of the Slave Trade

1837 | Queen Victoria

1846 | The Workhouse

1851 | Industrial Cities

1851 | The Great Exhibition

1854 | Florence Nightingale

1859 | On the Origin of Species

1859 | Brunel

1859 | Big Ben

1863 | Association Football

1870 | Charles Dickens

1888 | Jack the Ripper

1899 | The Boer War

1912 | Titanic

1913 | Emily Davison

1914 | The First World War

1916 | The First Day of the Somme

1918 | Armistice Day

1922 | The BBC

1926 | General Strike

1936 | Abdication

1940 | Dunkirk

1940 | The Battle of Britain

1941 | The Home Front

1945 | VE Day

1948 | The NHS

1948 | The Empire Windrush

1953 | Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II

1956 | Suez Crisis

1966 | World Cup Win

1960s | Beatlemania

1979 | Thatcher Becomes Prime Minister

1989 | Invention of the World Wide Web

1994 | Opening of the Channel Tunnel

1997 | Death of Princess Diana

1997 | Harry Potter

2012 | London Olympics

2016 | Brexit

Conclusion

Index

About the Publisher

Introduction

‘This royal throne of kings, this scepter’d isle… This precious stone set in the silver sea… This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England’

William Shakespeare, Richard II

In his paean to England in Shakespeare’s Richard II, John of Gaunt emphasises the importance of England’s status as an ‘island nation’. He is right to do so. So much of England’s history has been dictated by its position on a small, rainy island off the western coast of Europe.

England’s early history saw its shores invaded by waves of foreign settlers. The Romans arrived with Julius Caesar, followed by the Anglo-Saxons, the Vikings, and finally the Normans in 1066. This has given England an unusual mixture of Latin, French and Germanic influences. Days of the week in English are named after Norse Gods, but the months have Roman origins. The structure of the English language comes from Germany, but much of its vocabulary from France.

England’s status as an island nation has offered it unrivalled defences against foreign invaders, such as Phillip II of Spain in 1588, Napoleon Bonaparte in 1805, and Adolf Hitler in 1940. Unless you count the peaceful invasion of William and Mary in 1688, England has not been successfully invaded for one thousand years. The natural protection of the seas has given English history a stability and continuity that is unusual amongst the nations of Europe. The English Parliament has been meeting in Westminster since the 13th century, and the last battle fought on British soil was the defeat of Bonnie Prince Charlie at the Battle of Culloden in 1746.

England always depended upon its navy more than its army for protection, and for this reason the English people have long celebrated sailors as national heroes, such as Sir Francis Drake, Sir Walter Raleigh, Captain Cook and Lord Nelson. Britain’s seafaring tradition came into its own when the countries of Europe began building global empires. From the mid-18th century onwards, the Royal Navy lay behind Britain’s emergence as a world superpower, building an Empire stretching across North America, Africa, Asia and Australia. Today, Britain’s multi-racial society with large Caribbean, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Chinese and Indian populations is a direct legacy of its time as a sea-faring Empire.

Any book on the history of England will encounter difficulty negotiating England’s appearance, and then disappearance, as a single political unit. England only emerged as one country, governed by one ruler, during the reign of Alfred the Great’s grandson, King Athelstan. If you were to pinpoint England’s birthdate, then King Athelstan’s victory against the Vikings at the Battle of Brunanburh in ad 937 is perhaps the best contender. For this reason, this book gives relatively brief treatment to the history of ‘England’ prior to 937, offering a brief outline of the prehistoric, Roman, and early Anglo-Saxon periods in order to set the scene for England’s emergence during the 10th century.

England’s status as a sovereign state ended in 1707, when the Act of Union fused England and Wales with Scotland to form a new nation: Great Britain. From this point onwards in the book, I cease to write so often of ‘England’, as so many actions – in particular the creation of a global Empire – were really carried out by Britain. However, even though England ceased to be a sovereign state in 1707, it remains a country, with distinct traditions, culture, and – perhaps most importantly! – international sports.

10,000 BC | Prehistoric England

Around 12,000 years ago, the last Ice Age ended, and the British Isles once again became inhabited by humans. No written records of life in England exist from before the Roman invasion in 55 BC, so prehistoric England is a mysterious and unknowable place. But prehistoric Britons did leave their mark in other ways. Some lived in earthwork defensive settlements such as Maiden Castle in Dorset, some left behind enormous burial mounds for the dead. Prehistoric Britons were also skilled metalworkers, creating beautiful jewellery out of twisted gold thread. Tribal leaders would wear a thick golden ring called a ‘torc’ around their neck. There are also the remains of up to 900 stone circles built by prehistoric Britons, thought to have been used for religious and ceremonial purposes.

The warrior culture in prehistoric Britain can be seen from the swords, spears, shields and helmets uncovered by archaeologists. We also know that warriors rode horses and used chariots for battle. Two of the greatest artefacts uncovered dating from this period were found in the River Thames in London: a ceremonial bronze horned helmet found beside Waterloo Bridge, and a beautiful ceremonial shield decorated with coloured red glass, which was found in the Thames at Battersea.

Jason Benz Bennee

3,000 BC | Stonehenge

The most famous monument from prehistoric England is Stonehenge in Wiltshire. The first stage of its construction began in 3,000 bc, and it originally consisted of eighty-two stones arranged in two rings. Extraordinarily, these stones – which weighed up to four tonnes each – are thought to have been dragged to Wiltshire all the way from South Wales. Most of Stonehenge as we see it today was constructed from stones brought from 19 miles away in the Marlborough Downs. The heaviest stone weighs fifty tonnes, and would have required 500 people to drag it on rollers and sledges to Stonehenge.

Inside Stonehenge, archaeologists have uncovered pits containing pieces of flint and red clay, probably used as religious offerings. Some of these pits contained the cremated remains of people. In addition, there are numerous Bronze Age burial mounds nearby, often placed on high ground overlooking the monument. Stonehenge was clearly a site of great religious and ceremonial importance, perhaps used for funeral ceremonies. Some archaeologists believe Stonehenge was used to observe the movements of the sun and the moon, with special ceremonies held at the monument on the Summer and Winter solstices (the longest and shortest days of the year).

Kevin Lavorgna

AD 43 | The Romans

By the 1st century bc, Roman civilisation was reaching its zenith, and the Roman Empire spread across Western Europe to the Middle East and North Africa. Meanwhile, Britain remained a prehistoric civilisation, inhabited by a people sometimes referred to today as ‘Celts’. The first Roman to lead an expedition to Britain was the Governor of Gaul, Julius Caesar. In 54 BC, Caesar invaded Britain with an army of around 37,000 troops and won the surrender of its Southern tribes. However, Caesar had to return to Italy, and his conquest of Britain was left incomplete.

A century later in AD 43, the Roman Emperor Claudius set his sights on conquering Britain, in part to gain possession of its wealthy gold, silver and tin mines. An invasion force of 40,000 Roman soldiers landed in Britain, which Emperor Claudius later joined with a force of elephants – intended to scare the Britons into submission! For the next four centuries, Roman power spread across England and Wales, all the way to Hadrian’s Wall near today’s border with Scotland. Some remains of Roman rule can be seen today in locations such as Fishbourne Palace in West Sussex, Porchester Castle in Hampshire, and the beautiful Roman baths in Bath.

Michael Conrad

AD 61 | Boudicca

It was only during the 16th century that the story of Boudicca, the famous warrior queen, was uncovered in the writings of the Roman historian Tacitus. Boudicca was the Queen of the Iceni tribe in modern-day Norfolk. The invading Romans were unwilling to respect the authority of a female leader, so they confiscated Boudicca’s land, publically beat her, and – worst of all – raped her two daughters. Boudicca was outraged, and her Iceni tribe rose up in rebellion, destroying the nearby Roman capital of Camulodonum (Colchester). Boudicca and her rebel army then burnt to the ground the Roman trading settlement of Londinium (London), before turning northwards, and destroying the Roman settlement of Verulamium (St Albans).

According to Roman historians, Boudicca was tall and fierce, with a mass of tawny hair flowing down to her hips. Tribes flocked from across southern Britain to join their defiant warrior queen. Boudicca’s final showdown with the Roman army took place somewhere in the Midlands, but the well-drilled Roman army was too much for the Britons. They were massacred, and Boudicca and her daughters poisoned themselves rather than falling into the hands of the Roman soldiers. With Boudicca’s rebellion defeated, the Roman conquest could now continue.

Claudio Divizia / shutterstock.com

410 | Legend of King Arthur

By the 5th century, Rome was under attack from the barbarian tribes of northern Europe. In 410, the Roman Emperor ordered Roman legions stationed in Britain to abandon the country and return to Rome to help in the city’s defence. A small population of Romano-British citizens were left in Britain, but they were unable to defend themselves from a new invasion force from Northern Germany attacking Britain’s shores – the Anglo-Saxons.

It was from this tumultuous period of history that England’s most potent legend emerged: the tale of King Arthur. If he existed at all, King Arthur may have been a Romano-British military ruler who led the defence of Britain against invading Anglo-Saxons during the 5th century. However, over the centuries medieval poets, artists and storytellers added layers of myth and legend to this outline, keen to reshape Arthur in their own image. Arthur’s story was embellished by the wizard Merlin, Arthur’s wife Guinevere, the gallant knight Sir Lancelot, and the legend of the Sword in the Stone – none of which has any grounding in historical records. Even Arthur’s Round Table, which can be visited in Winchester Castle, was created around 1290 during the reign of Edward I.

ChiccoDodiFC

400S | Anglo-Saxons

After the Roman army abandoned Britain in 410, two tribes from Northern Germany began to invade and settle in England. Known as the Anglo-Saxons, they established a number of separate kingdoms across the country, such as Wessex in the south, Mercia in the midlands, and Northumbria in the Northeast. Early Anglo-Saxon England had a population of perhaps one million people living scattered across the countryside, in houses made of wood and straw.

Unlike the Romans, the early Anglo-Saxons could not read or write, and did not have the technology to build cities or roads. There are no written records or buildings left from this period for historians to study, so some call the early Anglo-Saxon period the ‘Dark Ages’. Much of what we know about early Anglo-Saxon England comes from the findings of archaeologists. Anglo-Saxons were skilled metal workers who loved jewellery and made beautiful objects out of gold and gems. Perhaps the most famous Anglo-Saxon artefact is an iron helmet and patterned facemask found in 1939 at a burial mound in Suffolk called Sutton Hoo. The Sutton Hoo helmet was intricately decorated with scenes of war, such as a warrior on a horse trampling a fallen enemy.

Flik47 / shutterstock.com

597 | The arrival of Christianity

At first, the Anglo-Saxons were pagans, who believed in the Norse gods. Woden was the King of the Gods, but there was also Tiw the god of war, Freya the goddess of love and fertility, and Thor the god of thunder. The days of the week in English are still named after these gods: Tiw became Tuesday, Woden became Wednesday, Thor became Thursday, and Freya became Friday.

This began to change when Pope Gregory in Rome sent a monk named Augustine to convert the Anglo-Saxons to Christianity. Augustine landed on the south coast of England in 597 with a group of around forty monks. Here, Augustine met Ethelbert, the King of Kent. Ethelbert’s wife, a princess from France called Bertha, was already a Christian. Under Bertha and Augustine’s influence, Ethelbert became the first Anglo-Saxon king to convert to Christianity. In 635, a monk called Aidan brought Christianity to Northumbria from Ireland. Pope Gregory made Augustine the first Archbishop of Canterbury, and Kent and Northumbria became the centres of Christianity in England, from which this new religion eventually spread throughout the whole country. To this day, the Archbishop of Canterbury remains the leader of the Church of England.

793 | Viking raids

In January 793, a band of warriors attacked the Christian monastery on the Holy Island of Lindisfarne in Northumbria. They arrived from the sea in ships with dragon heads carved into the bows, heavily armed with metal helmets, armour and two-handed axes. The warriors broke into the monastery, drowning the older monks in the sea and taking the younger monks as slaves. They then stole Lindisfarne’s treasures, and sailed away.

For the next three centuries, Anglo-Saxon England was subject to repeated waves of attacks from these warriors. Known as Vikings, they sailed to Britain from Scandinavia in longboats – huge ships that used both oars and sails to travel great distances along rivers and across the seas. At first, Vikings were content with hit-and-run raids on English coastal towns and monasteries. However, in 865, the Vikings assembled a force to settle in England, known as the ‘Great Heathen Army’. The Great Heathen Army captured the city of York in 867, and used it as a base to spread their power throughout northern England. Known as ‘Jorvik’ to the Vikings, York became a thriving centre of overseas trade under Viking rule, and home to perhaps 15,000 people.

899 | Alfred the Great

Alfred became King of Wessex, an Anglo-Saxon kingdom in the south of England, in 871. Aged only 23, he was immediately thrown into the long-running war with the Viking Great Heathen Army, who had by now settled throughout much of England. In 878, a Viking army led by King Guthram attacked King Alfred in Chippenham while he was celebrating Twelfth Night, the last day of Christmas. Alfred escaped the attack, but many of his men were slaughtered. Almost defeated, Alfred retreated to the marshes of Somerset, where he began to organise his counter-attack. Later that year, Alfred defeated Guthram’s Vikings at the Battle of Edington.

Alfred and Guthrum agreed to divide England by a diagonal line from the mouth of the River Mersey in the north-west, to the mouth of the Thames in the south-east. Alfred ruled the land to the south of this line, and fortified it against any future Viking attacks. In 899, Alfred died. His defeat of the Vikings, and rule of Wessex laid the foundation on which his descendants would build the unified Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of England. Today, Alfred remains the only king in English history to be remembered as ‘the Great’.

Awe Inspiring Images

937 | Rex Angloram

Following King Alfred’s death in 899, it fell to his son King Edward the Elder to continue the fight against the Vikings. Edward was greatly helped by his older sister Æthelflæd, who ruled much of the English Midlands as the ‘Lady of Mercia’. Famed for her intelligence and strength, Æthelflæd led her armies into battle against the Vikings, winning back their land for the Anglo-Saxons. King Edward was so impressed by his tough older sister Æthelflaed that he sent his own son, Athelstan, to be brought up by her.

Though he is not much talked about today, some historians say Athelstan should be remembered as the first King of England. When Athelstan became king, Northumbria remained an outpost of Viking power centred around the Viking capital of Jorvik. Athelstan gradually asserted Anglo-Saxon power over Northumbria, and in 937 he won a great victory at the Battle of Brunanburh, against an enormous Scottish, Viking and Northumbrian army. During his reign, Athelstan had new coins minted for his kingdom, on which he gave himself the title Rex Anglorum, meaning ‘King of the English’. For the first time since the Roman conquest, England could be described as a unified country under the rule of a single leader.

1042 | Edward the Confessor

In 1042, the English throne returned to Anglo-Saxon rule under Edward the Confessor. Edward the Confessor was mild-mannered, middle-aged, and extremely religious – hence his title ‘Confessor’. This intense religious faith may explain why King Edward remained childless even after he married. Edward’s failure to provide an heir set the scene for perhaps the most famous event in English history.

As Edward the Confessor drifted into old age, three claimants started jockeying for the right to succeed him as King of England. Firstly, there was Harold Godwinson, the Earl of Wessex. Harold was a powerful Anglo-Saxon nobleman, and brother-in-law to the king through his sister Edith. Second, there was William Duke of Normandy, a ruthless warrior from France who claimed to have been promised the throne by King Edward back in 1051. Lastly, there was the King of Norway Harald Hardrada, who wanted to return England to Viking rule.

Edward the Confessor did leave England another historic legacy, aside from an uncertain throne. His life’s work was the construction of Westminster Abbey, consecrated in December 1065, one week before Edward’s death. When completed, Westminster Abbey was the largest church in northern Europe, and has witnessed the coronation of every English monarch since 1066.

1066 | King Harold

Edward the Confessor died on 5th January 1066. As he lay dying, Edward bequeathed his throne to Harold Godwinson, the Earl of Wessex. On 6th January, Harold was crowned King at Westminster Abbey. He was to be England’s last Anglo-Saxon king.

The Godwin family were known for their ruthless ambition, but lacked royal blood. Many feared that seizing the English throne had been a step too far. These fears appeared to be confirmed in April 1066 when a burning comet appeared in the night’s sky. Was this a bad omen, showing God’s anger that an illegitimate king now sat on the English throne?

In September 1066, a Viking invasion force led by Harold Hardrada sailed up the Humber River and took York. Hardrada was accompanied by Harold Godwinson’s treacherous younger brother, Tostig. Harold marched his Anglo-Saxon army north to meet the Vikings, and caught them by surprise on the morning of 25th September at a location named Stamford Bridge. The Anglo-Saxons won a great victory, annihilating the Viking force and killing both Tostig and Hardrada. But this victorious start to Harold’s reign did not last long.

Richard Pinder / shutterstock.com

1066 | Battle of Hastings

No sooner had King Harold vanquished the Viking invaders, he received news that the Duke of Normandy’s invasion force had landed on the south-east coast of England. Harold demanded that his army march the length of England in little over two weeks, and on 14th October they met the Norman invasion force 10 miles inland from the town of Hastings. This battle would decide the course of English history.

Harold’s army of 7–8000 men men were weak and outnumbered by William’s superior army, which included heavily armoured knights on horseback and archers. In all, the Normans numbered perhaps 10,000 men. Despite this, the Anglo-Saxons started well, creating a defensive shield wall on top of the high ground of Senlac Hill. However, repeated waves of Norman attack slowly broke the Saxon formation.

What happened next is hotly disputed. According to one story, Harold Godwinson was shot through the eye by an arrow, and then dismembered by Norman knights. This is what appears to be shown in the famous Bayeux Tapestry, a magnificent 70 metre-long embroidered cloth that was created to celebrate the Norman invasion (see picture). After six hours of brutal fighting, William Duke of Normandy was victorious.

Ancient Art and Architecture

1060S and 70S | Norman Conquest

On Christmas Day 1066, the Duke of Normandy was crowned King William I of England at Westminster Abbey. In the years that followed, William was brutally effective at spreading Norman power throughout his new kingdom. The Normans would respond to any Anglo-Saxon rebellion by descending on their community, burning down their villages and slaughtering their inhabitants.

Perhaps the most infamous occurrence of Norman cruelty took place in 1069, when William’s newly appointed Earl of Northumbria was murdered by Anglo-Saxon rebels. William was furious, and vowed to make an example of the Northern rebels. His army marched north, and burnt to the ground every village between York and Durham. Farm animals were slaughtered, crops were destroyed, and the fields were laced with salt so that no more food could be grown. Known as the ‘Harrying of the North’, this event led to the starvation of perhaps 100,000 people.

Other examples of Anglo-Saxon rebellions and resistance took place, but all in vain. Through sheer military superiority, William’s occupying force of 20,000 men were able to subdue a population of two million. England’s era of Anglo-Saxon rule was firmly at an end.

Daniel_Kay

1086 | Domesday Book

Having conquered England, William set about creating a new ruling class of Norman noblemen. William seized the land from England’s Anglo-Saxon noblemen, many of whom had died fighting at Hastings, and transferred its ownership to his loyal Norman knights. Norman noblemen were given titles as Earls and Barons, and in the centre of their land they built large, intimidating castles to confirm their power. A strict social hierarchy (sometimes called the feudal system) was created, with Norman noblemen at the top, and their Anglo-Saxon vassals below.

To keep a record of this enormous transfer in land ownership, William the Conqueror ordered the Domesday Book to be written. For two years, Norman commissioners travelled the length and breadth of England, recording what this new kingdom contained down to the last pig, plough and beehive. Completed in 1086, it details the contents of over 13,000 different towns and villages. It is one of England’s most valuable historical documents, providing an extraordinary picture of life in the 11th century. For example, in 1085 Birmingham was a small village with just nine families and two ploughs. Today, it is England’s second largest city.

Granger Historical Picture Archive

1170 | Murder of Thomas Becket

Henry II was an energetic king, who rebuilt the power of the English monarchy after nineteen years of bloody civil war. But he is chiefly remembered for English history’s most famous murder. As king, Henry II wanted to gain more power over the English Church, so in 1161 he made his loyal friend Thomas Becket the Archbishop of Canterbury (leader of the English Church). However, on becoming archbishop, Becket transformed into a pious defender of Church independence.

Becket refused to take orders from Henry II, and their friendship transformed into bitter hatred. During a particularly foul dispute in 1170, Henry II allegedly screamed ‘will nobody rid me of this turbulent priest!’ Four knights interpreted Henry II’s outburst as an order, and rode to Canterbury Cathedral. They killed the Archbishop with a blow to the head by a sword, and smeared his brains across the Cathedral floor.

Henry II insisted that the murder of Thomas Becket was a tragic mistake, and did penance by walking barefoot to Canterbury where he was whipped by the Cathedral monks. Becket meanwhile was celebrated as a martyr for defending Church freedom, and made a Saint. His shrine became one of the most popular pilgrimage sites in medieval Europe.

Zvonimir Atletic / shutterstock.com

1204 | Eleanor of Aquitaine

Henry II’s wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine, was a remarkable Queen. In 1137, aged only fifteen, she married the King of France, Louis VII. However, Louis could not tolerate Eleanor’s independent mindedness, and they divorced in 1152. Eight weeks later, Eleanor shocked medieval Europe by marrying the heir to the English throne, the future Henry II. Henry II and Eleanor’s marriage started well having seven children together, but they began to quarrel. In 1174, Eleanor was arrested for plotting against her husband, and thrown in prison for sixteen years. When Henry II died, Eleanor’s favourite son Richard the Lionheart became King of England, and freed his mother from imprisonment.

Richard the Lionheart, whose statue stands outside the Houses of Parliament, is one of England’s most famous kings. However, he spent as little as six months actually in England during his ten-year reign. For most of the time, he was fighting on crusade in the Holy Land. Whilst Richard was fighting foreign wars, it was his mother, Eleanor of Aquitaine, who ruled England. She died in 1204 at the astonishing age of 82, having become one of the most powerful and respected figures, male or female, in all of Europe.

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1215 | King John and the Magna Carta

No medieval King of England has as bad a reputation as King John. John was Henry II’s youngest son, and became king in 1199 after the death of his older brother Richard the Lionheart. Many believed John’s nephew Arthur had a better claim to the throne. Before long, rumours began to circulate that to secure his hold on power, John had drowned his own nephew in the River Seine.

John was ruthless in punishing those who opposed his rule, often starving his enemies to death in castle dungeons. He repeatedly argued with the Catholic Church, and was excommunicated by the Pope. Worst of all, John was a hopeless warrior, and lost much of England’s territory in France, including his ancestral homeland in Normandy. To fight these unsuccessful wars, John taxed his Barons dry. But John’s tyrannical rule did leave a positive legacy. In 1215, the Barons united against King John, and forced him to sign a series of promises known as the Magna Carta. These promises included the right to a fair trial, independence of the church, and the need to gain the Barons’ consent before raising taxes. Today, the Magna Carta is seen as the birth of political rights in England.

The image opposite shows a memorial in Runnymede, the meadow beside the River Thames where King John agreed to the Magna Carta.

Paul Daniels

1200S | Robin Hood

Did Robin Hood even exist? Probably not. However, the legend of Robin Hood was popular in England from the 15th century onwards, and tells us a lot about medieval attitudes towards tyrannical royal power. Robin Hood is the outlaw of Sherwood Forest, who steals from the rich to give to the poor. A skilled archer, Robin terrorises the Sheriff of Nottingham and his master, Prince John, who has taken the throne from his brother Richard the Lionheart. Robin Hood is helped by his band of ‘merry men’, including Little John (who is actually very tall), Much the Millar’s son, and the rather less-than-pious Friar Tuck.

In later years, Robin Hood was depicted as a deposed Saxon nobleman, fighting back against oppressive Norman overlords. Woodlands such as Sherwood Forest were kept as royal hunting grounds by the royal kings, and those caught poaching on these grounds were cruelly punished. Today, you can visit the ‘Major Oak’, a hollow oak tree in Sherwood Forest where, according to legend, Robin and his merry men once hid. Sadly, Major Oak was not even an acorn during the reign of King John.

WDG Photo

1265 | The first Parliament

King John’s son Henry III was forced to reaffirm the Magna Carta (see here) in 1225, setting a precedent for all future English monarchs. Henry III had great military ambitions, wanting to reconquer the land lost by his father in France, go on a crusade to the Holy Land, and even make his son the king of Sicily. However, all of these foreign wars meant increases in taxation.

In 1264, a group of rebel barons led by the Earl of Leicester Simon de Montfort rose up against Henry III. At the Battle of Lewes, de Montfort defeated Henry III and took him prisoner. De Montfort then summoned all England’s bishops and noblemen to London, along with representatives from every shire and borough in the land. On 20th January 1265 they met at Westminster Hall as a ‘Parliament’, taken from the French verb parler (‘to speak’).

De Montfort’s Parliament is often called the first English Parliament. It gave institutional form to the promise in the Magna Carta that the monarch’s government should seek the consent of its people before passing new laws and taxes. Parliament still represents this principle today.

1283 | The Conquest of Wales

Since 1066, the Norman monarchs repeatedly tried to conquer Wales, but with little success. By the 1260s, most of Wales was under the control of Llywelyn ap Gruffyd. As the Prince of Wales, Llywelyn was expected to pay homage to the English king, but when the young Edward I was crowned king of England in 1174, Llywelyn refused to do so. Edward I was a brutal and warlike king, and saw this provocation as an opportunity to bring England’s troublesome neighbour under his control. In 1277, Edward invaded Wales with an enormous army. Five years later, Llywelyn was killed in battle, and his head was taken back to England to be displayed on a spike at the Tower of London. Llwyelyn’s brother, Dafydd, carried on the fight until 1283, when Edward captured Davydd and had him hung, drawn and quartered.

Having conquered Wales, Edward set about building a series of enormous castles to secure his power. For this reason, Wales has the highest concentration of castles of any country in Europe. Edward did not get rid of the title ‘Prince of Wales’, but gave it to his eldest son, thus beginning the practice of giving this title to the heir to the English throne.

1337 | The Hundred Years War

Ever since the Duke of Normandy conquered England in 1066, English monarchs had held territories in France. This led to ongoing tension between the French and English Kings, which frequently spilled over into war. In 1328, King Charles IV of France died without a male heir, and his throne passed to the French Count of Valois, who became Philip VI of France. However, the English King Edward III, whose mother was a French princess, believed he had a stronger claim to the throne. In 1337, Edward III declared himself the rightful King of France, marking the start of the Hundred Years War.

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