MARCH OF THE TITANS - A HISTORY OF THE WHITE RACE
CHAPTER 28 : THE SCEPTERED ISLE - ENGLAND, SCOTLAND, WALES AND THE UNITED KINGDOM
Part II - England
ALFRED THE GREAT
In 871, Alfred became king of Wessex, becoming what many regard as England's greatest king. At the time he became king, the Danes and Vikings were busy with large scale invasions of England. In 878, Alfred inflicted a severe defeat on a large army of invading Danes, forcing the invaders to accept a division of England into two parts - the kingdom of Wessex and the region known as the Danelaw (Essex, East Anglia, and Northumbria).
Alfred also created a large number of schools and did much to uplift his people. He also created the first English navy and with a re-organized army, started the conquering of the Danelaw. Alfred managed to capture the city of London from the Danes, but the final conquest of the Danes was only completed by his grandson in 991. The conquest of the Danelaw saw the creation of the first united kingdom in England. The king of Wessex became the most powerful component state of the new kingdom, whose king ruled with the assistance of the witenagemot, a council of princes and nobles.
King Alfred, King of Wessex, 871 AD. He is still regarded as one of England's greatest kings ever, managing to defeat the Danish/Viking invasions of his land, and capturing the city of London from the Scandinavians. He also instituted a large number of far reaching reforms, including some schools and the creation of the first English navy.
THE END OF ANGLO-SAXON RULE
After conquering the Danes, a special tax, called the Danegeld was introduced as a punishment on the now defeated Danish invaders by one of the new kings named Ethelred II - who also came up with the idea of trying to kill all the Danes who had not assimilated into the Anglo-Saxon tribes.
This policy provoked a furious response, and Ethelred was caught completely off guard by a renewed Danish invasion. Driven from the throne by the Danish king Sweyn I (who responded to appeals of help from Danes in England), Ethelred was given the name "Ethelred the Unready" as a result.
Although he was unready, Ethelred was however lucky - driven from the throne in 1014 by Sweyn's invasion, he returned a few months later when the Danish king died. When Ethelred died in 1016, his son, Edmund Ironside, was defeated by Sweyn's son, Canute II, and all of England came under Danish rule in a combined kingdom consisting of Denmark, England and Norway.
Canute's sons were however unpopular rulers. Eventually another of Ethelred's sons, Edward, was called by the princes in England from his exile in Normandy and peacefully retook the crown.
WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR - DRAMATIC SHIFT IN ENGLISH HISTORY
Edward however died heirless. The witenagemot chose Harold, Earl of Wessex, as the new king, although his only claim to the throne was his availability. Other claimants were the last Viking King Harold Hardraada (the Hard Ruler) of Norway, and Duke William of Normandy.
Harold Hardraada invaded but was defeated and killed by Harold of Essex at the Battle of Stamford Bridge in September 1066. Harold of Essex marched south to meet the Norman invasion in Kent, and was defeated by William at the Battle of Hastings in October that same year. William, called the Conqueror as a result, established a new kingdom in England, being crowned in Westminster Abbey on Christmas day, 1066.
The invasion of England by the Normans marked a dramatic shift in English history: from then on the focus of English society switched from Scandinavia to France, and relations with the French became the dominant theme of English history for the next 600 years.
The Normans invade England in their Viking longboats, 1066. From the Bayeux Tapestry, France. Originally Vikings ('Norse-men' which then became 'Norman') who had settled in France (in 'Normandy'), under their leader, the 7th Duke of Normandy, William the Conqueror, they invaded England, linking that country to France.
The history of England from the time of the Norman invasion till the final union with Scotland in 1707, which created the "United Kingdom", was one of gradual technological and cultural development, combined with a series of foreign and domestic wars, with the only major population shifts being between the mainland of France and England. Never again would England be the subject of an invasion on the scale of the Danes or Angles and Saxons, at least not until the 20th Century, but then in a different form.
William of Normandy in action at the Battle of Hastings, 1066. William was a direct descendant of Rollo the Viking, who settled in France at the invitation of the French in an attempt to stave off further Viking attacks. Due to a series of family links, William ended up being a claimant for the English throne when the reigning English King Edward, died heiress. Leading a Norman, French speaking, army across the English channel, he landed in south east England and at the battle of Hastings, defeated the English claimant to the throne, Harold of Essex. In this way a Viking descendant became King of England. The depiction of the battle scene follows the accurate detail of the Normans having long shields, as opposed to the round ones the Britons carried.
PROGRESSIVE NORMAN RULE
The first undertaking of the new Norman ruler, William, was to institute a survey of England: this produced the famous Domesday Book which was a full account of all property and wealth in England at the beginning of the 11th Century, a document which has proven invaluable for the study of English history.
The occupation of England by the Normans created a joint kingdom of Normandy and England: a situation which would last until the Hundred Years War between France and England, at the end of which England lost virtually all of its territories on the continent.
THE FIRST CIVIL WAR - IRELAND INVADED
The first of three major English civil wars broke out in 1135 over secession to the English throne: this war lasted until 1154, when the first king from one of leading royal families, the Plantagenets - Henry, who took the throne and crushed all dissenters, including the leading Christian churchman in England, Thomas O Becket (the archbishop of Canterbury) who was murdered in 1170.
It was during Henry Plantagenet's reign that Ireland was first occupied by the English. This conquest was to extend over the entire island in 1603, opening a festering political sore which has plagued the English right into the 20th Century.
In addition to Ireland, English control over parts of France was extended. Henry was succeeded by his son, the famous Richard Lionheart, who won renown for spending most of his time outside of England fighting foreign wars, including undertaking an important crusade.
In 1189, the first anti-Jewish riot took place in London, which soon spread to York, where 150 Jews were killed by a mob after they took refuge in a local building, Clifford's Tower, the ruins of which still stand to the present day.
ROBIN HOOD - CHARMING ENGLISH MYTH
It was during one of the absences of Richard that the events surrounding Robin Hood took place. Robin Hood himself did not exist, and although the stories around him are for the largest part made up, it is true that in some areas, bands of criminals combined with political dissenters did engage in a period of localized rebellion in central England against despotic rule which took place in Richard's absence.
THE MAGNA CARTA - FIRST ATTEMPT AT EQUALITY BEFORE THE LAW
Richard was succeeded by his brother John, who promptly lost Normandy to the French in 1204 and who, against his will, gained renown for signing the Magna Carta in 1215, a decree whereby the monarchs of England undertook to be subject to English laws, equal to all citizens of the realm. John, who was known as John the Bad, only signed the Magna Carta under duress - he knew full well that the English nobles of the time would have overthrown him had he not given his assent to the provisions of the decree. Amongst other things, the Magna Carta also guaranteed an accused person the right to a trial - a new concept at that time.
The nobles then created what was at first an informal committee to ensure that the king did not go back on his word and to ensure that the decree was enforced. This committee later became the progenitor of the House of Lords and parliament itself in Britain.
CULTURAL GROWTH
The 13th Century saw England prospering. Agriculture and trade increased, with London expanding in size, soon to become the largest city in Europe. The advances in society were reflected in the establishment of the great university colleges at Oxford and then later at Cambridge. The total English population increased from an estimated 1.5 million to about 3 million at this time.
However, the infighting so characteristic of all the early European countries also plagued England - a short civil war in 1264 saw the English king expelled, only to return after a year.
Anti-Jewish sentiment also grew: finally in 1290, all the Jews of England were expelled from the country, accused of exploitative financial practices related to their dominance of the banking business.
THE FIRST ENGLISH PARLIAMENT
A new king, Edward I, established the first English parliament in 1295, largely as a result of the 1264-1265 civil war. This parliament was essentially the old kings' council expanded to include a number of barons, bishops, abbots, and representatives of counties and towns.
WALES CONQUERED
Edward also conquered northwest Wales, adding this region to the English realm. Adopting the superior Welsh longbow as a weapon in the English army, Edward tried to pacify the Welsh by naming his son, the crown prince, as the Prince of Wales, a title which has persisted to the present day.
Although Edward tried to conquer Scotland as well, the wily men of the north put up stiff resistance: Edward's son, Edward II, finally gave up campaigning in the north after the 1314 Battle of Bannockburn, when the Scottish king Robert Bruce decisively defeated an English army.
THE HUNDRED YEARS WAR
In 1337, the English king Edward III initiated the Hundred Year's War with France over the long running issue of English territory in France and the English monarch's claim to the royal throne in France.
Initially the English achieved victories at the battles of Crecy in 1346 and Potiers in 1356, where they used their secret weapon, the Welsh longbow, to devastating effect. By 1396, however, the French had retaken virtually all of the territory they had lost.
The secret weapon which enabled England to win at least two important battles with France - the longbow. Developed in Wales, the longbow was capable of firing an arrow over a much greater distance than conventional bows. This illustration above purports to be that of the Battle of Crecy in 1346, where the English defeated the French with the use of the Longbow. English longbow archers on the right, face the French crossbow archers on the left. The illustration is inaccurate, as the longbow archers stood far behind the front ranks, way out of danger's immediate reach - and showered the French with arrows long before they could reply.
About 5,000 English longbowmen took part in the battle of Crecy - a good bowman could fire seven arrows per minute. This meant that the French were showered with 35,000 arrows per minute, cutting down men, horses and traveling with enough velocity to pierce all but the heaviest armor. Contemporary accounts have it that 'arrow flights darkened the sky' and this must have been very close to the truth. Only with the rise of firearms was the longbow finally made redundant. Below: An accurate depiction of the receiving end of the longbow - this illustration of French ranks at the battle of Agincourt in 1415, shows the slaughter inflicted upon the hapless French knights, long before they could close to combat.
In the midst of the war, the bubonic plague struck England in 1349, killing off as much as a third of the entire population.
The Hundred Years War then dragged on: the English king Henry V won a famous victory over the French at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415, again using the longbow to rain down arrows upon the French, decimating their ranks before actual hand combat could be joined. The war nearly ended with English victory by the treaty of Troyes in 1420, but the French, inspired by the sacrifices of Joan of Arc, fought back and finally cornered the last English army in Calais.
THE WARS OF THE ROSES
The desperate military situation and growing discontent with the inability of the youthful new king, Henry VI, to rule effectively, led directly to the largest and most devastating English Civil War of all: the War of the Roses which ran from 1455 to 1485.
The Wars of the Roses were fought between two branches of the royal family, the Lancastrians and the Yorkists. Finally, after the powerful Earl of Warwick switched sides, the Lancastrians won, and Henry VI was re-installed as king after a period in exile.
The Yorkists however staged a come back, and overthrew Henry VI, replacing him with their own man - who in turn was deposed by Henry Tudor, asserting a weak Lancastrian claim, finally ending the Wars of the Roses at a battle known as Bosworth Field in 1485. Henry Tudor, as Henry VII, started the Tudor dynasty, whose best known member was Henry VIII.
THE WIVES OF HENRY VIII AND THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE ANGLICAN CHURCH
Henry VIII is most often remembered for his wives and the break with the Catholic Church - the two were directly related. His first wife, the Spanish Catherine of Aragon, daughter of the famous Spanish monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella, bore him six children, only one of whom, Mary, survived infancy.
Henry decided to divorce Catherine, and marry a young lady in waiting to the queen, Anne Boleyn. When the Catholic Church refused to grant him a divorce, Henry simply abolished the power of the Catholic Church and set up the Anglican church, with himself as spiritual head. Although regarded as a Protestant church, the establishment of the Anglican church actually had nothing to do with Protestantism and everything to do with Henry's desire to get divorced.
Henry then married Anne Boleyn in 1533, but she bore him another daughter, Elizabeth. Enraged, the King had Anne beheaded for alleged adultery, and then married Jane Seymour, who died giving birth to Edward, his only surviving son. Three later wives, one of whom he divorced and another of whom was beheaded, had no children.
Henry VIII (1491-1547). The refusal by the Pope to grant Henry a divorce led to Henry breaking with the Catholic Church and starting what became the Church of England. Henry married six times in all, in an attempt to produce a male heir. His only son, Edward, died at the age of 16. The daughter of his first marriage, Mary, later became Queen.
BLOODY MARY : THE CATHOLICS COME BACK
Henry VIII was succeeded by his son Edward VI, but when the new king died at the age of 16, Henry's half-sister, Mary I, the daughter of the Spanish Catholic Queen Catherine of Aragon, inherited the throne through the rules of secession.
A fervent Catholic, Mary I restored the Roman Catholic church in England, violently suppressing the Anglicans, ordering 300 leading members of that church burned at the stake. Mary's marriage to her cousin, Philip II of Spain, was interpreted by the French as an attempt to create an alliance against France, and war broke out - the French quickly captured the last English outpost on the continent, Calais.
Mary's bloodthirsty revenge upon the Anglicans earned her the title of Bloody Mary - her death in 1558 was greeted with acclaim in England. Her half sister, Elizabeth I, ascended to the throne, although Elizabeth's cousin, Mary Tudor, daughter of Henry VIII by his first wife, was regarded by the Catholics as the only legitimate monarch as she was the product of the only (Catholic viewed) legal marriage of her father. A Spanish plot against Elizabeth's life was uncovered, which included putting Mary Stuart on the throne once Elizabeth had been killed. This resulted in Mary Stuart being executed in 1587, leaving behind a son, James. Despite never being made Queen of England, Mary is still remembered in the English speaking word through the rhyme "Mary, Mary quite contrary. . ."
THE ELIZABETHAN AGE - ENGLISH ASCENDANCY
The age of Elizabeth I was marked by the ascendancy of England. She re-established Anglicanism and dominated the Scots by assisting the Protestant and pro-English faction in Scotland. She also assisted the Protestant rebels in the Spanish Netherlands. This led to war with Spain, and the famous attempted invasion of England by a combined French and Spanish fleet known as the Spanish Armada.
THE SPANISH ARMADA DEFEATED
In 1588, the English navy, under the able command of Sir Francis Drake, decisively defeated the Spanish fleet in the English channel.
The Spanish strategy was to have the Spanish fleet join a large Spanish army in the Netherlands and land this force on the coast of England. The first part of the plan went awry when the Protestant Dutch - who were fighting a war of independence against the Spanish - blocked the rendezvous of the two Spanish forces by blockading the ports of Holland.
The Spanish fleet was then set upon by the far better trained English navy which benefited from better designed battleships. After three days of battle, the English dispersed the Spanish Armada by launching flaming drone ships into the center of the Spanish fleet. The Spanish fleet broke up in confusion, and the swifter English ships were able to piecemeal utterly destroy the invasion fleet.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE - WORLD'S FOREMOST PLAYWRIGHT
Elizabeth I's age was also the time of the greatest playwright and writer the world has ever seen. William Shakespeare's works were written and first performed during this Golden Age, never to be bettered by any playwright or poet again. Shakespeare's works remain to the present day some of the most widely read and studied literature in the world, and his works are certainly the most translated plays in history.
William Shakespeare, the Nordic genius of the written word, was born in England in 1564 and died in 1616 - and is still an icon of the theatrical and literary world.
THE AGE OF EXPLORATION
Elizabeth I also presided over England's rise to glory abroad and the start of a massive colonization drive which would not only create wealth in Britain, but would ultimately lead to the establishment of the United States of America.
The exploits of the voyages of discovery - explorers who discovered and mapped virtually the entire globe - are detailed in a later chapter.
BLACKS IMPORTED - AND EXPELLED
The expansion into new territory also opened the slave trade: in 1555, the first Black slaves were imported into England itself, with the towns of Liverpool and Bristol becoming the major English slave trading ports. By 1601, there were officially 20,000 Blacks in London - too many for Queen Elizabeth 1, who ordered every single last one expelled from England back to the colonies in that year. This single act - a remarkable but little known incident - meant that there was never again a significant Black presence in England until the late 20th Century.
Elizabeth 1, Queen of England, who ordered the deportation of all Blacks from London in 1601, after objecting to the presence of approximately 20,000 Black slaves in the capital city. This single act ensured that Britain had no large scale Black presence until the late 20th century.
ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND
Elizabeth I was succeeded by James I, the son of Elizabeth's cousin, Mary Stuart, also known as Mary Queen of Scots. This act saw England and Scotland retaining separate parliaments although agreeing to have one monarch.
This system was subjected to stresses throughout its life time due to religious disputes between Catholics and Protestants. The reign of James I in particular was marked by an increase in the Catholic/Anglican conflict in England, with extreme Protestants wanting to distance the country still further from Catholicism.
James 1, the only son of Mary Queen of Scots, was proclaimed King of Scotland as James VI in 1567, at the age of one. In 1603 he ascended to the English throne, thereby uniting the crowns of the two countries and establishing the country today known as the United Kingdom.
GUY FAWKES AND THE GUNPOWDER PLOT
Both Catholics and Anglicans used violence against each other. In 1605, a Catholic plot to blow up the English (Anglican dominated) Parliament with a massive gunpowder bomb at the Hall of Westminster in London, was foiled at the last moment when one of the conspirators, Guy Fawkes, was arrested as he was setting the charges.
The Gunpowder Plot - which saw Guy Fawkes and his fellow conspirators tortured and hanged - is still celebrated in many countries as Guy Fawkes or Fireworks night, although the meaning of the fireworks and the bonfire is lost on most.
THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION AND THE ENGLISH REPUBLIC - CHARLES BEHEADED
The growing dissent between Catholics, Anglicans and extremist Protestants, combined with the attempts by Charles I, the son of James, to rule without Parliament from 1629 to 1640, led to the next English Civil War and the English revolution. After conflicts over laws in parliament which aimed to limit the power of the Anglican church, Charles withdrew all his supporters from parliament, known as the Cavaliers.
The Puritan (or extremist Protestant) remainder of Parliament, called Roundheads, then declared war on the royalist forces. In 1642 the first battle of the Great English Civil War was fought.
The Roundheads, or parliamentarians, eventually defeated the royalists after much of the country was laid waste in the resulting conflict between the two sides. The Roundhead victory was mainly due to the military ability of the Roundhead leader, Oliver Cromwell.
Charles was captured and beheaded in the main street of Whitehall in London in 1649, the only English monarch to meet such a public end. The English parliament then declared England a "commonwealth" and abolished the monarchy.
The death mask of Oliver Cromwell, the commoner who rose to become the head of the English state after the abolition of the monarchy in that country in 1649. He was offered the crown, but turned it down, preferring to keep England as a "commonwealth". After his death the monarchy was restored.
OLIVER CROMWELL'S INFLUENCE
The dominating personality of the time of the English "commonwealth" was Oliver Cromwell. From 1649 to 1651, Cromwell acted like an imperial king himself. He conquered all of Scotland and Ireland, bringing then into the "commonwealth". England also expanded its colonial possessions, seizing the island of Jamaica from the Spanish in 1655.
After a deputation of Dutch Jews came to see him in 1655, Cromwell also ruled that Jews could be allowed back into England in 1656, the first time since their expulsion in 1290.
THE RESTORATION
After Cromwell's death the commonwealth collapsed. A period of constitutional confusion followed until Charles II, the son of the executed king, was recalled to the throne in 1660, and England once again became a monarchy.
The restoration of the monarchy saw English culture and influence expand still further. Apart from great writers such as Geoffrey Chaucer, Samuel Pepys, John Milton and John Bunyan, who lived at this time, the destruction of London in the Great Fire of 1666, gave the scientist and architect Christopher Wren the chance to rebuild many parts of that city with buildings which became known world wide, the most famous being St. Paul's cathedral.
WILLIAM OF ORANGE - INVITED TO BOLSTER PROTESTANTS
In 1688, the English king James II issued a Declaration of Indulgence, allowing Dissenters and Catholics to worship freely.
The Anglican dominated parliament, fearful of the return of Catholicism once again, invited William of Orange, a Protestant from the Netherlands and husband of the king's elder daughter, Mary, to come to help bolster the Protestant camp.
When William landed, James fled, his army having deserted to William, who was then given temporary control of the government. In 1689 the Parliament gave him and Mary the crown jointly.
The ascension of William and Mary saw the position of the Protestants entrenched. War with the French and the Spanish followed, mostly in an attempt to check the territorial ambitions of the French King Louis XIV but also related to the prevention of any possibility of return to Catholic rule in England.
ISAAC NEWTON - INTELLECTUAL GIANT
Around this time one of the greatest scientists of the age was unraveling the mysteries of science. Isaac Newton, (1642-1726) became the most prestigious natural philosopher and mathematician of modern times, inventing the mathematical system known as Calculus (although a German mathematician, Leibniz, also developed the system at the same time, quite independently of Newton) and author of the laws of motion and of gravitation.
Newton's works, combined with the efforts of philosophers such as John Locke, Thomas Hobbes and others, saw England dominate the world's stage with scientific and intellectual thought - a situation of eminence which contributed greatly to the domination of the physical world by the British.
THE UNITED KINGDOM - PROTESTANTS BOLSTER POWER
In 1707, England and Scotland were finally formally united by an Act of Union: this was done to prevent the possibility of a Scottish Catholic ever becoming king or queen, with preference being given to the closest Protestant family members: who were in Germany.
The Act of Union between the kingdoms of Scotland and England created the "United Kingdom" of Great Britain.
Click Here for
or back to
or back to
or
All material (c) copyright Ostara Publications, 1999.
Re-use for commercial purposes strictly forbidden.