Christopher LEE – THIS SCEPTRED ISLE

CHAPTER ONE (55 BC-AD 448)

- 55 BC: Julius Caesar (Proconsul of Gaul) came to Britain
he kept a journal, extract describes the Britons he knew about:
- the inland part of Britain is inhabited by native tribes
- the coastal parts by tribes from Belgium
- the most civilized are those who live in Kent
(all the Britons dye themselves with woad, which produces a blue colour)
→ in Caesar’s time the people of Britain were not the English (they didn’t arrive
until hundreds of years later)
- these people were Celts - common language: Celtic
- there were also Druids in pre-Roman Britain

- some of the tribes sent envoys to Caesar; they didn’t want to fight
- Caesar: army of ten legions (less than 50 000 soldiers)
The Romans forced the Britons to flight. The Britons wanted to negotiate, but
seeing the plight of the enemy (bad weather, extreme tides), they broke off the
negotiations and attacked.
→ Caesar never pretended that his expedition had been a success
- he prepared a new fleet – in fact designed the first landing craft (it is simpler to
get stores, horses & men ashore)
- 54 BC: Caesar returned to Britain
- the Britons (or some of them) had united under a leader called Cassivellaunus
The Catuvellauni were the strongest of the southern tribes.
Cassivellaunus had many enemies, though:
- Trinovantes (Essex) + other tribes entered into a pact with Caesar.
Eventually peace was negotiated and Britons were taken hostage.
→ Caesar left Britain (revolt in Gaul) – this time he proclaimed a conquest

20 large tribes, some became famous:

- Iceni – East Anglia
- Catuvellauni – East Midlands and Essex
- Parisi – Yorkshire
- Silures – Wales
- Brigantes – probably in the Pennines

- 43 AD: Emperor Claudius conquers Britain

- internal situation: Cunobelinus [Shakespeare’s Cymbeline] – established an
overlordship over the South East of the Island (with his capital at Colchester) →
dissensions
on his death the kingdom was ruled jointly by his sons Caractacus and
Togodumnus

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- Roman commander, Plautius arrived
The Britons hid in the forests and the swamps. Plautius first defeated Caractacus
and then Togodumnus.
Claudius captured Camulodunum [Colchester], the capital of Cynobellinus.
- in Rome the Senate gave him the title of Britannicus

but: Caractacus resisted for 6 years → defeated by a new general, Ostorius →

C. had became a hero, he was freed, but he was not to return to Britain
(remained in honourable captivity)

→ the centre of Roman Britain was Camulodunum, or Colchester

idea: Britain should become a province within the Roman Empire – this was
difficult to achieve
- in 54 AD Claudius died → Nero became emperor

- the king of the East Anglian Iceni had died → his widow, Boadicea (Boudicca)
became the head of a numerous army → she went for Colchester (massacre),
London (Suetonius abandoned London)
- ca 70 000 Roman citizens died
→ battle: Boadicea ↔ Suetonius – he won; massacred the Britons

- the Romans ruled Britain for 500 years and they gave the Britons their first
written historical descriptions
- 410 AD: Romans left Britain – no further contemporary written accounts of
what was going on in Britain for many years
- monk: middle of the 6th century - Gildas the Wise – glimpses of history in his
writings
→ rising of a tyrant: probably Vortigern (he is not named) – he was on the side
of the Britons
- he hired mercenaries to defend the Britons against the Anglo-Saxons (led by
Hengist and Horsa)
- great victory at Mons Badonicus → it brought peace for perhaps half a
century
The Anglo-Saxon conquest was, for the bulk of the British community, mainly a
change of masters.

- Venerable Bede: Ecclesiastical History of the English People: few traces of

Saxon heritage
(Edward the Confessor, his son Harold; King Arthur and Camelot – greatest
mystery of all Anglo-Saxon history)

9th century AD: Welsh scholar: Nennius: the legend of King Arthur and the
Knights of the Round Table
(later these tales would be retold and embellished by the genius of Mallory,
Spenser and Tennyson)
12 battles → last battle: Mount Badon - btw. 490 and 503

• another figure of the time: Columba, a monk – he came to Britain to preach

the word of God to the provinces of the northern Picts
- king at that time: Bridius, son of Meilochon (king of the Pictish) – he
converted his people to Christianity (Scottish king)
• the southerners had already been converted by a Briton, Bishop Ninian
- Easter – most important event

→ any crime could be compounded by a money payment

’wergild’ = exact value of every man
- atheling (prince): 1500 shillings /1 shilling – value of a cow or sheep/
- eorl (nobleman): 300 shillings
- ceorl (yeoman farmer): 100 shillings
- laet (agricultural serf): 40-80 shillings
- slave: Ø

CHAPTER TWO (449-884)

- 449: Angles, Saxons, Jutes arrived in Britain (3 most powerful nations of
Germany)
Saxons – cruellest nation (name is derived from the use of a weapon, the seax –
short one handed sword)
- first bretwalda /ruler of Britain/: Aelle (Bret – Britain; Walda – ruler)
’common overlord’ + underlords
→ Christian and heathen traditions together
- 595: Pope Gregory sent Augustine to Britain with monks – they wanted to turn
back – the Pope’s letter persuaded them to fulfil their quest. They needed the
protection of the local king (in Kent) – Æthelberht (Ethelbert) – he worshipped
Thor /god of thunder/
- his wife was a Frankish princess: Bertha (Christian) → for political reasons he
wanted to convert
- Augustine converted him to Christianity
- 2 conferences /British Christian bishops / - both failed
- Augustine began the training of the clergy
question: whose version of Christianity should rule: Augustine’s or the northern
Celtic?
→ How should Easter be observed? Should the tonsure – a symbol of church
doctrine – be worn?

- Redwald, King of the East Angles helped Edwin to gain the crown of
Northumbria

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- overlord of all English kingdoms except Kent
- Paulinus converted Edwin (+ the kingdom of Northumbria) to Christianity

- 633: King Penda of Mercia (heathen) + Cadwallon (British king of North

Wales ; Christian) made an alliance
→ battle against Edwin – he was slain
- Edwin’s successor Oswald – destroyed Cadwallon and his British forces /last
pitched battle btw. the British and the Saxons/

- 663: Synod of Whitby → chose the Church of Rome

- the leadership of Saxon England passed to Mercia

2 Mercian kings – each reigned for 40 years: Æthelbald /murdered by his own
bodyguard → civil war in the Midlands/ new king: Offa (contemporary of
Charlemagne) – powerful king
- Offa had his son anointed as King of Mercia; he was consecrated - first time
that an English king was consecrated!
- he caused an immense dyke (wall) to be built btw. converted Saxon England
and the still unconquered British

- 789: Vikings arrived (at Portland in Dorset) → Swedes, Norwegians, Danes

They killed many and withdrew, then returned in 793. They landed on the north
of Scotland, set up encampments. They went on to Ireland – it is thought that the
Viking king, Olaf, founded Dublin.
- 865: the great invasion started /East coast of England/
Ragnar Lodbrok was killed – his 4 sons swore vengeance (Blood-Red Eagle) -
Ivar the Boneless took the oath -the most seriously – he planned the great
campaigns – siege to York
the Vikings defeated the Northumbrians – the North of England never recovered
its ascendancy

century of Alfred the Great /849-899/

- ’Danegeld’ – he payed the Danes so that they would not fight him
- father of the British navy
- grandson of King Egbert
- younger brother of King Æthelred (not A. the Unready) → they both fought the
Vikings

- 871: Alfred became King /his brother died/ - fights with the Vikings, horrible
losses, they were bought off with the Danegeld
- the Vikings moved to London → coins with the Danish king, Halfdan on one
side and the monogram of London on the other

- 878: Alfred was on the run from the Danes; in today’s terms he became a
guerrilla fighter
Then he gathered his Saxons together.
- battle of Edington – the largest and culminating battle of Alfred’s wars
- Guthrum, king of the Viking army → Alfred made peace with him →
converted to Christianity, A. godfather
→ new Viking army came
- by 886 - Alfred took London by burning and slaughter & then rebuilt it
London became the centre for resistance to England’s enemies.

CHAPTER THREE (885-1065)

- one final war
Alfred persuaded the Viking king Haesten to have his 2 sons baptized
Alfred gave way to a younger leader: Edward /his son/
he had an ally: the young Mercian prince - Æthelred
- the Vikings broke their oaths of peace → war
(in 899 Alfred died → Edward succeeded him)

- quarrel btw. Edward and his cousin Ethelwald

Ethelwald & the Danish king - Eric ↔ Edward
→ Ethelwald and Eric both died perished on the field
the new king, Guthrum II made peace with Edward
the Danes broke the treaty in 910 → new war → the Danes were defeated

Edward’s sister: Æthelfleda married the Mercian Æthelred → he died

- the legend of the Lady of Mercians was born → with Edward she conquered
the 5 boroughs of Danelaw

Edward pressed North → he died in 924

→ his son Athelstan – first king of all England

- 933: general rebellion and renewed war

- 937: Athelstan’s victory at Brunanburh (first patriotic verse was written in
Old English)
England and Germany became tied (marriage and political interest)
Athelstan died → half bother: Edmund - died → brother: Edred

→ most fearsome new Viking leader appeared: Eric Bloodaxe /Norwegian/ - he

united the Vikings of Dublin & York; he was killed in the Battle of Stainmore

- 955: Edgar became King of Mercia

Eadwig /his brother/ became King of Wessex → died
- Edgar became king of Wessex, Mercia & Northumberland → first coronation
that had written Order of Service

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→ reconstruction of England /shires were reorganized – each with a
sheriff/reeve, hundreds (subdivision of the shire) were created, courts, taxation
was reassessed
- great re-birth of monastic life and learning & the beginning of the native
English language
- St Dunstan – Abbot of Glastonbury, Archbishop of Canterbury
→ there was a literary English – a King’s English
→ civilization had been restored to the Island

973 – coronation of Edgar (he was 30, he could be ordained a priest) - died soon
after the coronation
terrible times were to come…
Edgar had 2 wives – 1. son: Edward → murdered by his step-mother’s servants
– 2. son: Æthelred the Unready /mother: Ælfthryth ↑/ - he was
crowned after Edward’s death

- 980: serious raids began again → Vikings

most shameful period of Danegeld – Æthelred used money instead of arms (+
took Danish mercenaries)
- 1002: St Brice’s Day → massacre of Danes
→ Sweyn /King of Denmark/ took revenge – carnage and massacres
Æthelred paid more bribes (price – 3 years of the national income!)

- 1013: Sweyn + his son Canute came to England

- Sweyn was proclaimed King of England – died in 1014

there was another respite (short period of rest) – the English turned again to
Æthelred – they declared him their lord ’if he would rule them better than he had
done before’
- Æthelred married Emma /sister of Richard, Duke of Normandy/ (the future
mother of Edward the Confessor)
his son: Edmund Ironside → was acclaimed King → died in 1016

- the chiefs of England abandoned the descendants of Æthelred – recognized

Canute as King
(the family of Æthelred was excised from the royal line)
→ Canute became king, married Emma (Æthelred’s wife!) – Emma and her sons
were not allowed to live in England – by 1016 they were living in Normandy

- he was King of Denmark & conqueror of Norway

- he ruled according to the laws; he built churches; honoured the memory of St
Edmund & St Alphege
- he developed a system – ’devolved government’ - title of earl emerged
/appointed by the King/
- chief advisers: Godwine & Leofric (both Anglo-Saxon - rivalry btw. the two
families)

- 1035: Canute died, 2 sons by a former wife + Hardicanute by Emma (ignorant

and boorish Vikings)
→ many thoughts turned to Alfred and Edward, sons of Æthelred and Emma (in
exile in Normandy)
(Alfred was blinded)

- Canute wanted his son, Hardicanute, to succeed him - Emma & Godwine
supported him
but Leofric proposed Harold to be king → Harold I. (Harefoot) → Godwine
now supported him too → died
Harold died, Hardicanute arrived to claim the throne - died in 1042

- 1043: Edward /later: Confessor/ was crowned King of England /kindly, weak,
chubby albino…/
(Norman prelates appeared in the English Church, N. clerks in the royal
household, N. landowners in the shires)
as Edward grew older his outlook was increasingly that of a monk (hence his
name, the Confessor)

→ Godwine grew more powerful

- 1051: crisis → the Norman party drove Godwine into exile
→ William of Normandy’s official visit → King Edward (very likely) promised
him that he should be his heir
→ Godwine returned with his son Harold [who was to become Harold of
Hastings] + force
→ they obliged King Edward to take them back into power
→ Godwine died → Harold was for 13 years the virtual ruler of England
- Edward died in 1066 and with him the line of the Saxon Kings
CHAPTER FOUR (1066-1087)
- origins of Normans – they weren’t French → their origins were in Scandinavia
- under king Rollo the Vikings had settled in Northern France 150 years before
William the Conqueror was born

→ in England: Harold ↔ Tostig half-brother (T. hated him)

↔ William of Normandy (he believed the English crown
belonged to him)

- Tostig + King Harold Hardrada set forth to conquer the English crown with a
large fleet and army in the late summer of 1066 – battle: Harold of England won

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- William, Duke of Normandy landed on a Sussex beach in September, 1066
(the story in told in the tapestry chronicle - Bayeux Tapestry – designed under
the guidance of Odo, Bishop of Bayeux → Norman version)

1066: Battle of Hastings – Harold ↔ William

- Harold died
→ the English still believed they could hold London and raise another army –
leader: Edgar the Æthling
He stopped William entering London. But then they gave in.

- William the Conqueror became king of England

→ Tower of London was built + taxes → start of his steady conquest of the
islands

→ he wanted for a short period to return to Normandy, so he made Bishop

Odo /his half-brother/ Earl of Kent
Odo was installed in Dover Castle with William fitz Osbern
- the Saxon resistance died hard (Hereward the Wake - today’s term: freedom
fighter) /legend: his mother - Lady Godiva, father - Leofric of Mercia/ →
Hereward’s name became a symbol of resistance to evil authority
- 1075: revolt of Norman knights in the Midlands + Waltheof /surviving Saxon
leader/ - executed → martyr

- castles were built

- French culture and language
- intermarriages
- 1086: Domesday Book (name: ‘It spared no man, but judged all men
indifferently, as the Lord in that great day will do’) Salisbury Oath
- development of feudalism

- Robert (William’s son) /Crusading knight/ - claimed his Norman inheritance →

combat btw. father & son
for a time there was reconciliation
Robert also broke with his 2 brothers – William (later W. Rufus) and Henry (one
day would also be King)
- 1077-1080: William was not in England at all

Scottish king: Malcolm the Bighead → he beat Macbeth in 1057

William got injured → sons William & Henry came to him
William was named to succeed his father (→ Robert became Duke of
Normandy)
- 1087: William the Conqueror died

CHAPTER FIVE (1087-1165)

- 1087: new King is William Rufus (or William the Red)
Archbishop Lanfranc (an Italian) (Archb. of Canterbury) – responsible for the
education of William the C’s sons
- 1088: conspiracy → Bishop Odo, Bishop Geoffrey, William Bishop of
Durham, Earl Roger → wanted Robert to be King
- Robert, William & Henry fought each other
- 1096: Robert decided to go on a Crusade, an expensive business
- 1100: William Rufus died in a hunting accident (Walter Tirel, an attendant shot
him)
→ Henry crowned himself → married Matilda (to the suspicion of the Norman
barons)
She became known as Good Queen Maud (granddaughter of Edmund Ironside,
son of Æthelred the Unready)
- he guaranteed that the rights of the baronage and the Church should be
respected
- he promised the conquered race good justice and the laws of Edward the
Confessor
- this marriage neatly tied a knot with the Scottish kings (she was Scottish)
But: family difficulty – Robert wants his blood
- 1106: Battle at Tinchebrai → Robert & Henry – Henry won; Normandy
acknowledged his authority
- the control of Anglo-Norman policy passed from Rouen to London
(for the Saxons this battle was sort of a military revenge for Hastings)
- 1120: Henry’s son and apparent heir (17 years old) was drowned (White Ship
disaster)
- the King ‘never smiled again’
- the forces of anarchy grew – problem of succession

- the Scots claimed territories: David (King of Scotland)

- Henry wanted his daughter Matilda to become his heir
- Matilda (25) married Geoffrey Martel (14!) /this marriage displeased all the
French and all the English/
→ they had 3 children → one of them became Henry II (Plantagenet)
- Laws of King Henry I
→ Edward the Confessor was canonized, became the patron saint of the English
peoples (until the Hundred Years’ War – St George)
- Exchequer → ’department of royal administration’ / Pipe Rolls (important
documents)/
under his reign: relative peace

- 1135: Henry I. died → his nephew Stephen became King

→ opponent: Henry’s bastard son: Robert of Gloucester & Matilda

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- Constitutio Domus Regis – the Establishment of the King’s Household:
describes a twelfth-century royal court and its attendant costs
→ uprisings against Stephen (Scots, the Welsh + Rober of Gloucester)
→ Stephen lost the support of: the baronage, the novel civil service, the Church
- King David of Scotland laid claim to Northumbria → in the battle of
Northallerton the Archbishop of York slaughtered the invaders (prelude to civil
war)

- 1139: Matilda arrived in England to claim her rights → the Church supported
her
- 1141: general rebellion against his rule → king was taken prisoner /at the
Battle of Lincoln/
→ for nearly a year, Matilda, uncrowned (!) was in control of England

- 1145: Stephen’s victory in Faringdon in Berkshire

- 1147: Robert of Gloucester died; Matilda’s son: Henry Fitz-Empress
- the emblem of his father’s house was the Planta Genesta, the broom  Henry
Planta Genesta → Plantagenet

Stephen was persuaded to adopt Henry /his own son, Eustace died/
→ Stephen died → Henry claimed his throne

Henry II /ruler of England & Normandy/

- one of the most pregnant and decisive reigns in English history!
- England became a coherent kingdom, based upon Christianity

/Walter Mapp’s record of the court (a clerk in the royal household): Of

Courtiers’ Trifles
- Henry II married Eleanor of Aquitaine /former wife of the French king, Louis
VII/

- the new King of Scotland, Malcolm, paid homage to Henry (Scotland did not
regain her independence until Richard I came to the throne)

- 1157: Henry’s expedition against the Welsh prince, Owen Gwynedd → disaster
Reforms:
- he relaid the foundations of a central power, based upon the Exchequer and the
judiciary
- self-government under royal command in shire and borough
- he developed and made permanent ’assizes’
- English Common Law (not Roman)
- Constitutions of Clarendon → to fix the relationship of Church and State →
force the Church to submit itself to the life and law of the nation (in this he was
defeated)
/What else is to come during his remarkable reign: period of war, legal reform,
invasion of Ireland, the building of a palace in Dublin, break-up of his marriage,
the rebellion of his sons, Thomas Becket/

CHAPTER SIX (1166-1189)

Henry II is remembered for 3 things:
1. he was the first Plantagenet king 2. he developed the idea of the assizes 3.
martyrdom of Thomas Becket
- at the age of 17 he became Duke of Normandy
- he was taught by: the poet Peter of Saintes; Wilhelm of Conches /in ethics/;
Adelard of Bath /scientist/
- studies in Bristol
- Henry’s chief justice: Rannulf Glanvill supervised the setting out of the first
comprehensive record of legal procedure: it was based on a new system of juries
and writs. The assizes were developed.
(from the Assize of Clarendon: e.g. Anyone caught red-handed didn’t get a trial.
Nor did a person who admitted guilt, even if he denied it later.) (from the Assize
of Northampton: e.g. ordeal of water)

Thomas Becket - Archbishop of Canterbury; Chancellor of the King’s

household; secretary, diplomat, judge
- as a student he had never excelled, his Latin was very poor
- he often took the King’s side rather than the Church’s /Pope Gregory VII/
conflict  Becket wanted to establish the independence of the Church from the
hierarchy of the State
- he protected clerks and clergy from the full punishment under the law (even
when they were charged with rape, murder or theft)
- Henry confiscated the lands owned by Becket
Becket haughtily denied the King’s authority before the Great Council
- Becket was found guilty of wrongful use of money when he was chancellor
- the bishops divided; Becket escaped, went into exile
- 1166: Becket excommunicated a whole bench of bishops

Henry wanted his son crowned as his successor → the Archbishop of Canterbury
should have been the person to officiate → Henry: the Archbishop of York can
do this → Pope: said no → Henry: ignored the Pope’s ruling → for Becket this
was an outrage → Pope & Louis VII were bound to support Becket
- proclamation of reconciliation btw. Henry and Becket
- Becket again excommunicated some bishops

- 1170: Becket was murdered by knights and became a martyr and within 2 years
he was canonized

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For 2 years Henry II was ostracized (excluded), but he recovered: made
pilgrimages to the shrine of Becket subjected himself to public penances, etc.
- 1172: Compromise of Avranches – peace with the Papacy
- 1174: great penance at the Cathedral
- 1171: Henry II conquered Ireland → he had the Pope’s support, because the
papacy dislikes the way in which the monasteries dominated the Irish Chruch.
- 5000 knights and archers, 400 ship to transport everything there
- only the kings of Tyrone and Tyrconnel refused to pay homage
- Henry II moved to Dublin, built a palace
- submission of the Irish Church followed
- Henry was recognized as Lord of Ireland
He had 4 sons: John, Henry, Geoffrey, Richard – they wanted his death
- Henry was confronted with 4 rebellions by his sons
They were supported by the King of France against Henry II.
- in 1189: Henry II died
CHAPTER SEVEN (1189-1199)
Richard I became king (Henry’s eldest son)
- he built a naval town in Portsmouth
- he drew up the first Articles of War
- sold Scotland her independence
- led a great Crusade and would be called Richard Coeur de Lion
He was in England only twice for a few months in his 10 years’ reign!

- he freed his mother: Queen Eleanor /Henry II imprisoned her/, she became his
representative in England
- he made peace with the supporters of his father
- he intended to install himself as Duke of Normandy
- he was generous to his two surviving brothers

His heart was set upon the new Crusade:

- he sold and re-sold every office in the State
- he made new and revolutionarily heavy demands for taxation
→ he called for ’scutage’, the commutation of military service for a money
payment
- later introduced ’carucage’, a levy on every 100 acres of land

- he also sold Scotland for 10,000 silver marks (to King William of Scotland)
Richard promised to marry Alice, sister of King Philip of France → but he
married Berengaria, daughter of the King of Navarre (he loved her)
- 1186: Saladin (great national leader of the Turks) proclaimed a Holy War
- Richard & Philip went to war together (Pope’s call to ‘Take the Cross’)
- Richard massacred 2000 Saracen hostages
- he became friendly with Saladin
- the Crusade was doomed, largely because of the disunity among its leaders
Richard hurried home → because he was informed that his kingdom was in a
state of near anarchy:
- William Longchamp, Bishop of Ely governed the country, entrusted to him by
Richard in 1189
- over-mighty position of Prince John
- Philip Augustus of France returned → he wanted Normandy (in John he found
a willing partner)
- Richard became prisoner ‘somewhere in Germany’ in 1193
→ the Holy Roman Emperor, Henry VI demanded the prodigious ransom of
150,000 marks
(twice the annual revenue of the English Crown)
- Philip & John offered the Emperor 80,000 marks to keep Richard in prison
- Henry VI felt engaged to Richard – the charge staggered the kingdom – Prince
John also collected taxes
- Richard returned home in 1194

- there was a war in France → Richard went there to defend his possessions
- Hubert Walter, the Archbishop of Canterbury and chief justice ruled in
Richard’s absence
→ developed the system of strong centralized government devised by Henry II
→ new assessments of land were begun
→ weights & measures were standardized
→ new concessions were granted to London & the principal towns
→ Mayor of London /office/: first mayor – Henry fitz Ailwin

- 1199: a treasure had been found (a group of golden images) /Richard needs
money for his wars/
Richard claimed this treasure as lord paramount, the lord of Chaluz resisted the
demand, Richard laid a siege to his small, weak castle, he got wounded and died.
(The archer was flayed alive.)
- before his death Richard declared John to be his heir

CHAPTER EIGHT (1199-1216)

→ Richard’s brother John became king
2 views upon succession: Geoffrey, his elder brother, had left behind a son,
Arthur, Prince of Brittany
(Queen Eleanor stood by John)
- John was accepted in England
- in the French provinces: they adopted Arthur (in Paris he was under the
protection of Philip of France)
John married Isabel of Angoulême

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→ John was a vassal of the French king
He refused to answer the summons of Philip and was sentenced to be deprived
of all his lands in France because of his failure of service to his overlord.
- 1202: Philip invaded Normandy
The French King knighted Arthur, gave him John’s land /except Normandy &
Guienne/ + daughter Mary
- Arthur tried to kidnap Queen Eleanor /grandma/, but John surprised him →
Arthur was imprisoned, he died of the shock of castration

- 1205: crisis → loss of Normandy, death of Eleanor, death of Hubert Walter

- new Archbishop of Canterbury: Stephen Langton
John wished John de Gray → retaliated against the decision by seizing Church
lands
→ in 1208: the Pope laid England under an interdict – for 6 years, the churches
remained closed, people couldn’t be given a Christian baptism, marriage or
burial.
→ John seized more property → the Pope excommunicated him

- John offered to make England a fief of the Papacy and to do homage to the
Pope as his feudal lord
- Innocent forgave the penitent King - accepted the sovereignty of England

- the barons and magnates drew together under the leadership of Stephen
Langton
- the war with the French king was continued → John demanded money &
service from them

- Langton persuaded the barons to base their demands upon respect for ancient
custom & law
- At St Paul’s, Archbishop Langton produced the Charter → process: Articles of
the Barons and
eventually the Magna Carta

- system of checks and balances (government is more than the arbitrary rule of
any man)
- custom & law must stand even above the King
Meeting at Runnymede:
- a short document was drawn up – 49 Articles
The parchment begins with a simple statement: ‘These are the articles which the
Barons ask for and the Lord King grants’
- the Charter was produced – it reflects feudal law and feudal custom
→ the assizes were to be held more often
→ the liberty of the Church was to be respected
- the most important clause: Article 39 (‘No free man shall be arrested or
imprisoned or disseised or outlawed or exiled or victimized in any other way,
neither will we attack him or send anyone to attack him, except by the lawful
judgment of his peers or by the law of the land.’)
- no mention of the terms of military service!
- in theory the Charter established that ‘the King was not above the law’

- the barons invited Louis, son of Philip, to be their liege lord

war: barons + King Alexander II of Scots ↔ John
- 1216: King John died (of dysentery)
- the boy King was crowned and William the Marshal (70) undertook the
‘Regency’

CHAPTER NINE (1217-1272)

Henry III became king
- England is engaged in the Baron’s War
- the first 10 years: Regency /Henry was too young/
William the Marshal + Stephen Langton + Hubert de Burgh – supported the king
- 1227: Henry started ruling
Henry married Eleanor of Provence
- the Great Council didn’t have much power
- 1258: constitutional confrontation – immediate result:
- Provisions of Oxford /reforms rather than rules/ issued by a Committee
appointed by the Oxford Parliament
They contain a series of oaths. For example:
• 3 Parliaments a year
• the Council, the Fifteen, shall be chosen, not by the King, but by Earl Marshal,
Hugh Bigod, John Mansel and the Earl of Warwick
The Provisions of Oxford were written in English, Latin & French

- new Justiciar: Hugh Bigod

- 1258: the word Parliament entered the language! (it comes from Norman
French)
/it was a direct development of the curia Regis, the royal court of the Norman
kings/
The first Parliaments did not have a Speaker, a government party, an opposition
front bench nor chief whips.
 the 13th-century Parliaments were the more important session of the Great
Council

- 1259: the Provisions of Oxford were reinforced by the Provisions of

Westminster
- Lord Simon/ Simon de Montfort (Earl of Leicester) – he married the King’s

15
sister
- he was brought to trial in 1252, the commission acquitted him
- he became very powerful, he became the brain and driving force of the English
aristocracy
- he struck up an understanding with the King’s son, Edward → Henry sent
Edward into exile
Civil war broke out in 1263.
- 1264: Battle of Lewes → start of the Second Barons’ War (the King &
Edward were captured, De Montfort was ruler of England. He governed England
in the name of the King.

- the new Earl of Gloucester was a royalist → De Montfort’s position weakened

- Prince Edward escaped and raised an army (with the help of Gloucester)
- Edward united the baronial party
- 1265: the Battle of Evesham → De Montfort died a hero in the field
- Mortfort’s supporters were stripped of their properties → their name:
Disinherited – they became outlaws
Henry died in 1272 → Edward was abroad on a Crusade
Irony: the new King, Edward I continued to implement Montfort’s reforms

CHAPTER TEN (1272-1307)

Henry III was buried in the dearest object of his life, his new abbey at
Westminster
- after his death the way land was administered and owned began to change (it
became a commodity which could be bought and sold)
- the Jews became objects of hate (biggest moneylenders in the state)
William the Conqueror had brought Jewish moneylenders to England → they
settled
In 1189: widespread massacres
1275: Statute of the Jewry: the King established that no Jew should lend
anything at usury.
- each Jew, after he is 7 years old, shall wear a distinguishing mark on his outer
garment
- each one, after he is 12 years old, shall yearly at Easter pay to the King
anti-Semitism (propaganda of ritual murder, etc.)

- Margaret became Queen of Scotland, she was followed by John Balliol

- the Welsh revolted against the English - Llewellyn ap Gruffudd, Prince of
Wales and his brother were killed
William Wallace defeated the English at Stirling Bridge, but was beaten at
Falkirk the following year

- the population of England: 3 million

Edward’s Chancellor: Robert Burnell
- 3 departments: the Exchequer /at Westminster/ - most of the revenue was
received here and the accounts kept
the Chancery – secretariat: wrote and drafted the innumerable
royal charters, writs, letters
the Wardrobe with its separate secretariat, the Privy Seal –
financial + secretarial functions

Edward’s wife, Eleanor of Castile died + his mother + his two elder sons
- he loved his wife, he built crosses everywhere where the cortège stopped
- he had to go to war with France – he needed of money
French king: Philip the Fair
Edward called together a council, a Parliament – it granted a heavy tax on all
moveable property → discontent
- 1294: the Welsh revolted → the king suppressed them; Scotland allied itself
with France

- 2 principles had been established:

1. the King had no right to despatch the feudal host wherever he might choose
2. the King could not plead ‘urgent necessity’ as a reason for imposing taxation
without consent
 the English kings were devoted to protecting their interests in France → for a
long time it was easy for the King to convince his nobles to fight for him in
France
- but as decades went by fewer of the English magnates were directly tied to the
continental lands

- conflict at home: Scotland and Wales

Edward I took the first step towards the unification of the Island
- he conquered Wales in several years of persistent warfare
- 1282: the Welsh attacked – Dafydd & Llewellyn
- 1284: the Statue of Rhuddlan was proclaimed and Edward regarded himself as
the conqueror of the Welsh
- Wales was organized into shires
A new type of infantry was raised from the common people: operated by the
long-bow
- the King’s son, Edward, was born – in 1301 he became the first English Prince
of Wales
- Scotland: 2 claimants to the throne – John Balliol and Robert Bruce
- new Scottish king: John Balliol
The Scots allied themselves with the French – Edward marched on Berwick and
sacked it.
- William Wallace rose to lead the Scottish rebellion – he defeated Edward and

17
became the ruler of Scotland
Deciding battle: 1298 Falkirk – Edward’s mistake: he fought an open battle and
his cavalry fled
- Edward had brought his longbow-man from Wales
- in 1305 Wallace was tried, hanged, drawn and quartered

Edward I now faced a new King, Robert the Bruce

→ Edward, too weak to ride, was carried to do battle once more against the
rebellious Scots
- he died on the road as the rebellion continued

CHAPTER ELEVEN (1307-1330)

- Edward died in 1307
- in 1299 he was forced to marry Margaret, the daughter of the King of France
It was a diplomatic marriage to signify some sort of peace between the two
enemies. But she sided against him.
Churchill called Edward ‘a master-builder of British life, character, and fame’.
→ he laid the basis of taxation through a parliament
→ established a documented and efficient administrative process
→ made clear the laws of his kingdom
+ but: he left the country in debt because of his wars with Scotland

- he left an heir, Edward II

- Edward II’ obsession for Piers Gaveston, the son of a Gascon knight, was to
bring about anarchy and war
- the barons gained control of the mixed body of powerful magnates and
competent Household officials
→ they set up a committee: ‘the Lords Ordainers’
- the barons’ party attacked Piers Gaveston, because he influenced the King
/Edward II made him Earl of Cornwall + when Edward II went to France to
marry Isabella (12!), → he left Gaveston ruler of England/
- at the April Parliament: the barons forced the King to agree to their wishes and
banish Gaveston
→ he appointed Gaveston his Lieutenant in Ireland
- 1309: a list of grievances was presented to Edward → agreed to reforms, in
return demanded the recall of Gaveston
- Lords Ordainers (committee of 21) → wrote 41 articles: ’Ordinances of 1311’
• the King was not to leave the realm without the consent of barons
• can’t appoint a keeper of the realm
• can’t appoint whomsoever he wished as senior officials
• all officials had to take an oath to uphold the Ordinances
- Gaveston was exiled to Flanders → returned → he was executed by the barons
- 1314: campaign against Scotland – Robert de Bruce; Battle of Bannockburn
→ the English lost
- after the battle the King was unpopular and very much reliant upon his closest
officials
- group of Lords Ordainers: their leader was Thomas of Lancaster /nephew to
Edward I/
- he was the forefront of the baronial opposition
- he had control of the country’s administration
- he gave instructions to the chancellor, made appointments, issued pardons
- he was Steward of England

- famine in the country (cannibalism, men murdered for food)

- a new grouping emerged, a middle party led by: Earl of Pembroke
→ aims for administrative reform – they carried out a great reform of the royal
Household
Edward began to build up a royalist party – at its head were the Despensers:
both named Hugh

- 1321: the Welsh Marcher lords & the Lancastrian party wanted to exile the
Despensers - Edward defeated them
- 1322: Edward defeated the Northern barons & beheaded Lancaster
- the Queen, Isabella became the lover and confederate of Roger Mortimer, one
of the chief Marcher lords, who had escaped to France
- Isabella went to France to negotiate the restoration of Gascony
- 1324: Isabella’s estates were sequestrated
+ rumour that the young Hugh was attempting an annulment of her marriage to
the King
- Prince Edward was sent to do homage for Gascony
- Isabella & Mortimer staged an invasion of England; Edward was unpopular →
Isabella’s triumph
→ the Despensers were hanged; the King was imprisoned in Berkeley Castle
and slaughtered
(he was murdered because of his foolishness – he was weak, without political
imagination and intelligence)
His young son was crowned in his place, but England was effectively ruled by
Roger Mortimer

reign of Edward III – engaged to Philippa /daughter of the Count of Hainault/ -

in return for soldiers
- 1327: coronation of Edward III
- 1328: the ‘Shameful Treaty of Northampton’ recognized Robert the Bruce as
King north of the Tweed and implied the abandonment of all the claims of
Edward I in Scotland

19
- for the young King Edward this treaty was a total humiliation

- 1328: Edward III married Philippa

- 1330: Edward III’s son was born
Mortimer was hanged, Isabella was consigned by her son to perpetual captivity
→ she died 30 years later
(she became a nun)

CHAPTER TWELVE (1331-1376)

The Hundred Years’ War
What happened (between 1337 and 1397)?
• The Hundred Years’ War began; • The Order of the Garter was
founded
• Langland’s Piers Plowman was written; • The first Stuart King of Scotland
came to the throne
• Richard II came to the English throne; • the Peasants’ Revolt took place
• Wat Tyler died, John of Gaunt was born; • the Scots beat the English at
Otterburm
• Chaucer finished The Canterbury Tales

- Edward III reigned until 1377

- new king of Scotland in 1332 → Edward Balliol
- in 1333 Edward III besieged Berwick and routed (defeated) the Scots
The French court encouraged the Scots in rebellion against England.
- 1336: Edward decreed an embargo on all exports of English wool → produced
a crisis in the Netherlands
 Edward made a claim to the French throne after the death of the heirless
Charles IV
in 1331 he laid aside his claim → Edward dusted off his claim in 1337 (Philip of
France confiscated Gascony)
→ Edward III published a manifesto, telling everyone the reasons for the
coming war
The French king took even more of Edward’s possessions.
Edward III → ’King of the Sea’
- 1340: first struggle: hostile navies met off Sluys → the Normans were defeated
(25,000 men were killed)
- 1346: first great land battle: the Battle of Crécy → the English won
• it cleared Edward III’s way to Calais → it became an English colony for 200
years
• it proved that with the use of longbow-men, mounted knights would no longer
be the force they had been
- the Staple: wool could be exported through certain ports so that the King’s
officials could tax it
(ports, system of control – known as Staple)
- the wool merchants who held the monopoly formed a corporation interested in
the war, dependent on the King → this development was not welcomed by
Parliament (the smaller wool merchants were here represented)

- 1346: the English reached Paris → Philip of France had superior forces, the
English withdrew
The war continued in the country (Amiens, the Somme, Picardy, Abbeville).
- siege of Calais /11 months/
- King David of Scotland wanted to help the French, but was captured and
imprisoned in the Tower
Edward III founded the Order of the Garter (Térdszalagrend) (the Countess of
Salisbury dropped her garter)
→ the Order’s Purpose: a fellowship of knights to represent how they ought to
be united in all Chances and various Turns of Fortune → 26 knights including
the King (they wore the garter on their right legs)
- St George - new patron of England

- 1348: the Black Death reached England → for 20 years

The plague entered Europe through the Crimea – in the course of 20 years it
destroyed one third of its population
- 1360: the plague returned in a weaker form (the main victims were children)
- by 1355, the war with France was back in full swing
- 1356: The Black Prince defeated the French at Poitiers & captured John II of
France
- 1357: David II of Scotland was released
- 1362: William Langland produced: Piers Plowman
- 1369: Philippa, Edward’s wife died in the third plague
→ most famous children (out of 12 /+ 2 died/): Edward the Black Prince; John,
Earl of Leicester → J. of Gaunt
- 1360: Treaty of Brétigny → England acquired Gascony, Aquitaine, Ponthieu,
port & city of Calais + ransom at 3 million gold crowns (8x the annual revenue
of the English Crown in time of peace) – the French didn’t pay
→ the French king was released → he died in London in 1364
In Parliament: the procedure of collective petition made progress → the
Commons assumes a distinct and permanent position in Parliament (Lower
House) → the separation of the Houses appeared
 so the Houses of Parliament, Lords and Commons, date from the 14th century

- 1343: the figure of Speaker emerged (1377: Sir Thomas Hungerford – first
speaker)
- 1369: the Pope was established in Avignon → anti-English, pro-French
John Wyclif, Oxford theologian → translation of the Bible into English

21
the Black Prince, the heir to the throne, died – had a son; Edward III took up
with Alice Perrers
King Edward III died deserted by all – the people of England mourned his
passing

CHAPTER THIRTEEN (1377-1399)

- 1377: Richard II (10) came to the throne /the Black Prince’s eldest son/
- John Gaunt carried the sword, Curtana, at the coronation (blunted sword, the
sword of mercy)
John Gaunt became Steward of England and ran the Regency for the boy-King
→ he was unpopular with the businessman, the clergy and the Commoners of
Parliament
- he led the anti-clerical party in England
- 1371: John Gaunt removed the chancellor & the treasurer
- the Good Parliament of 1376 attacked the government and Gaunt’s cronies
- Gaunt used Parliament for his own purposes
- 1381: there was a general ferment /lázadás/ - it was started by an attempt to
make a second and more stringent collection of the poll-tax /fejadó – ‘polle’
meant head/
- 1351: the Statute of Labourers had frozen wages to pre-Black Death rates
This Statute and the new poll tax caused the Peasants’ Revolt (1381) - agitators:
John Ball & Wat Tyler
King Richard met the leaders – Wat Tyler listed their demands: the repeal of
oppressive statutes; the abolition of villeinage; the division of Church property –
the King said that, within reason, everything would be granted
- Wat Tyler was beheaded, the King cancelled the promised reforms (but: the
poll tax was killed)
→ the influence of a new aristocracy was growing
- in 1389: the King began to rule for himself
→ John Gaunt left England to pursue his claim to the kingdom of Castile
/through his wife/
- the commissioners compelled the King to dismiss his personal friends →
Richard prepared for civil war
→ Thomas of Woodstock /brother of John Gaunt/ & Henry Bolingbroke /son of
J.G./ & Mowbray of Nottingham marched on to London → they called
themselves the ’Lords Appellant’ and accused Richard’s closest advisers of
treason
- de Vere, the King’s favourite, raised an army and marched to the King’s rescue
- 1387: the troops led by Gloucester & Bolingbroke scattered them
- 1388: the Lords Appellant summoned the Merciless Parliament → the King’s
friends, Tresilian, Burley and Brember, were executed
- John of Gaunt returned and his presence reduced the influence of the Lords
Appellant
- 1394: John of Gaunt went to Ireland – the Pale was again under threat (Dublin
+ Meath, Louth, Kilkenny)
- Richard’s wife, Anne of Bohemia, died
- in 1396: he married Isabella (7), daughter of the French King, Charles VI; this
political marriage sealed a
30-year truce with France → secret clause: aim from France if Richard is
opposed at home
- 1366: Statute of Kilkenny: forbade English settlers to intermarry, or adopt
Irish customs or language

- 1399: John of Gaunt died → Richard took over the estates

→ Richard set off on an expedition to Ireland, leaving his kingdom unguarded
Henry of Lancaster, son of John of Gaunt claimed his lawful rights
- Richard submitted to Henry, he rode through London as a captive

CHAPTER FOURTEEN (1399-1454)

 by the end of the 14th century, the Plantagenets had ruled England for almost
250 years
(8 kings; from Henry II to Richard II) – the dynasty was to splinter:
- House of Lancaster + House of York
- for the next 60 years England was ruled by the House of Lancaster
Richard’s successor: Henry Bolingbroke → Henry IV
- Richard was still alive, he was imprisoned - he was starved to death or killed
by one of Henry’s knights
→ the Church demanded that the excesses of the Lollards be restrained
(religious reformers, followers of John Wyclif; they didn’t believe in
transubstantiation /átlényegülés/ and they believed the clergy indulged in
excesses)
- 1401: Statute de Heretico Comburendo → it made legal in England to take
anyone convicted of heresy and burn him, or her, at the stake
- Henry faced war with both Scotland and Wales
- the Scots had renewed their alliance with France and, led by the Earl of
Douglas, had destroyed the English force and captured Henry Percy
- Henry IV’s most serious conflict was with the Percys (lords of the Northern
Marches)
→ defence of England against the Scots unaided & at their own expense
→ they were defeated by Henry IV
- schism in the Church – a pope in Rome and a pope in Avignon  Henry
supported the Roman pope
- 1413: Henry IV was horribly afflicted with leprosy - died → his son became
King – Henry V
- Henry V brought the reputed body of Richard II to London and reinterred it in
Westminster Abbey

23
- 1415: Henry V set out for France
→ Henry V claimed his right to the French throne
The French were weak from civil conflict between the Burgundians and the
Orleanists, the Royalists
• the Royalists: offered Henry a large part of Aquitaine, money and Catherine
(daughter of King Charles VI)
• the Burgundians: Henry could enter France in safety → Henry promised that
he would take their side against the Orleanists if they would support his claim to
the throne
- Harfleur was taken by the English
→ the two sides came face to face at a field called Agincourt
- Henry tried to negotiate a withdrawal – the French wanted him to renounce his
claim to the French throne – Henry refused
- the French camp-followers and peasantry broke pillaging into the camp and
stole the King’s crown, wardrobe & the Great Seal → the King issued the dread
order to slaughter the prisoners
- the English lost perhaps fewer than 300, the French maybe 6000
→ Henry V returned to England – he was the hero the nation had longed for
- 1420: Henry married Catherine → agreement: after Charles’s death Henry
would become King of France
- 1422: Henry died V → his son, Henry VI became King (9 months old)
- 1421: the French and their Scottish allies defeated the English at Baugé
- 1428: coronation of Henry VI (7 years old)

→ the English laid siege to Orleans → the English forces were weak, their
leader was killed; Joan of Arc made her famous appearance at this siege
→ the English fell back at Orleans; Joan of Arc led the Dauphin through
Champagne, took Trozes and Chalons
- 1429: the Dauphin was crowned King Charles VII in Rheims cathedral
- 1430: the Maid of Orleans was captured by the Burgundians and sold to the
English → she perished in 1431
- all Northern France, except Calais, was reconquered by the French
 the Hundred Years’ War was effectively at an end
→ the English were at war with themselves
On one side: the Beaufort family (bastard descendants of John of Gaunt) –
Lancastrians (as was the King)
On the other side: the King, Henry VI + his new bride, Margaret of Anjou
- 1450: the Kentish rebellion led by Jack Cade was protesting against:
→ the oppressive taxes → the government’s incompetence
Cade took over London for 3 days, in 1450 he was killed during a skirmish
 during the next 3 years the English were thrown out of Normandy and, with
the French victory at Castillon, the Hundred Years’ War was at an end
- in 1453: the King went mad; there were suspicions that the new prince,
Edward, Prince of Wales, was not the King’s son!
- 1454: the Duke of York was declared Protector
- in 1455 the King recovered his wits; he was taken prisoner
 The Wars of the Roses had started: House of Lancaster, House of York

CHAPTER FIFTEEN (1455-1485)

The Wars of the Roses spread over 30 years – not one long war - the same
dynasty: Plantagenets [...]
- Lancasters: crown lands (Cornwall); Lancastrian Earldoms (Lancaster, Derby,
Lincoln, Somerset, Surrey, East Anglia, Leicester, Hereford, Nottingham); the
Percys, the elder Nevilles
- Yorks: Western Marches, Kent, Wiltshire, Norfolki, Southern Midlands; the
Mortimers, the younger Nevilles, Earl of Warwick, Earl of Salisbury

- 1456 – 59. uneasy truce

- 1460. Northampton – royal forces fled, leaving Henry VI. behind; Yorkists
took him to London and ruled in hi name
- 30th Dec. 1456. Margaret’s army (Lancaster) defeated the Yorkists; Duke of
York killed; Warwick is beaten
- Warwick and Edward, the Earl of March (son of the Duke of York) unite thir
forces and capture London
- Townton Field – they beat the Lancastrian army> Margaret fled to France,
Henry hid in Cumberland, but he was traced down and imprisoned in the Tower
- Edward Earl of Marsh is crowned as Edward IV.

- clash between Warwick and Edward (because of Edward marriage to the

Lancastrian Elizabeth Woodville
- 1469. Edgecote – Warwick+Clarence (Edward’s brother) defeat Edward and
capture him
- Edward released in return for granting pardon
- rebellion in Lincolnshire > Warwick and Clarence defeated & captured; the
French Louis XI. forced Warwick to negotiate with Margaret of Anjou (wife of
Henry VI.)
>> plot against Edward (Margaret’s son, also called Edward, is to be married to
Anne Neville, Warwick’s daughter and crowned after Edward IV.’s defeat)

- first Warwick was succesful, but then he lost the support of Clarence (first the
throne was promised to him, how he saw he has no chance to get it)
>> Tewksbury – Warwick defeated, Edward Prince of Wales beheaded

- 1483. sudden death of Edward IV.

>> Richard of Glouchester appointed as regent

25
- he lodges the to sons of Edward IV. In the Tower, together with the Queen
Mother; princes killed in secrecy
- claims the marriage of Edward and Elizabeth invalid > pronces have no right to
inherit the throne

>> he is crowned as Richard III.

- plot against him led by the Duke of Buckingham

- 1485 Battle of Bosworth - end of the Wars of the Roses (death of Richard III;
accession of Henry VII Tudor)
Sir Walter Scott referred to the wars by this name in his novel, Anne of
Geierstein in 1829

CHAPTER SIXTEEN (1485-1515)

The story of Tudor England began in 1485 (Henry Tudor was crowned Henry
VII at the Battle of Bosworth)
- he was Welsh and 28 when he came to the throne
- father: Edmund Tudor, the Earl of Richmond
- mother: Margaret Beaufort /descendant of John of Gaunt/
- wife: Elizabeth of York /Edward IV’s daughter/ - they had 8 children (4 boys, 4
girls)
Henry VII: in government he was shrewd and far-seeing; he cherished justice; he
was a most zealous supporter of religion – in his later days all these virtues were
obscured by avarice
Population of England: two-and-a-quarter million (before the Plague – 4-5
million)

→ Henry VII was a member of the House of Leicester but this marriage satisfied
most of those Yorkists who had joined Henry against Richard (they hated
Richard)
 so a new dynasty, the Tudors, had begun
Invasion of pretenders: The Court at Burgundy was a centre of plots against him
→ pretenders: Lambert Simnel, Perkin Warbeck
/Churchill’s point about the discontented nobles in Ireland is a reminder that
both Lancastrian and Yorkist sympathies were to be found within the important
Anglo-Irish families. Who controlled Ireland was important to England.
→ the Butler Family was Lancastrian; → the Fitzgeralds were Yorkist
 no English king had yet found how to make his title ‘Lord of Ireland’ any
more real than his title of ‘King of France’
- the key to English control over Irish affairs, for a time, was the English ability
to make cannons
Henry VII tried to resolve the differences between Scotland and England before
he tackled Ireland:
- he married Margaret to James IV in 1502 (there was peace in the North until
after his death)
→ war against France → he besieged Boulogne → negotiations with the French
king who bought him off
- Henry’s eldest son, Arthur, was betrothed to Catherine /daughter of Ferdinand
& Isabella of Spain/

- Henry put the state books in order (‘best businessman ever to sit on the English
throne’)
- he made the old systems (administration of the state) work better
- 1485: he formed the Yeomen of the Guard
- 1494: King’s College, Aberdeen, was founded
- 1496: Cabot received the Royal Licence to explore the other side of the
Atlantic
- 1496: weights & measures were standardized
- 1499: Erasmus visited England
- 1500: building work started on Holyrood House
- 1501: Prince Arthur married Catherine of Aragon, in 1502 he died
- 1503: Catherine was engaged to Arthur’s brother, Prince Henry
- in 1509: Henry VII died and Prince Henry became Henry VIII (18) and
immediately married Catherine (24)
Henry VIII – boisterous, vindictive and brooding – deeply religious
- his zeal in theological controversy earned him from the Pope the title of
’Defender of the Faith’
- he wrote verses, composed music
- his advisers: Thomas Wolsey /son of a butcher/; Thomas Cromwell
/attorney/; Thomas Cranmer /lecturer/
- 1512: the English expedition to Gascony failed
→ Henry hired the Emperor Maximilian, with the Imperial artillery + the
Austrian army – brilliantly successful (though costly)
- 1513: Battle of Spurs → the English won (so called because of the rapidity of
the French retreat )
- Queen Catherine was left behind as Regent of England – she sent great news
from the North:
- 1513: Scottish warriors invaded England - only one experienced general was
left in England, the Earl of Surrey → bloody battle at Flodden Field → the
English won → James IV was killed → James V succeded him (1)
/his mother was Henry’s sister Margaret/ → peace descended on the northern
Border

- Thomas Wolsey → Henry persuaded the Pope to create Wolsey Papal Legate
in England
→ Wolsey received the Bishopric of Lincoln; the Archbishopric of York; a

27
cardinal’s hat
→ 1515: he was created Lord Chancellor
→ for 14 years he was the effective ruler of the realm

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN (1516-1546)

- period of the European Renaissance → one of its first effects in England:
Christian humanism
→ Erasmus: Novum Instrumentum → new version of the New Testament →
tracts against the Pope
→ Erasmus came to Cambridge to finish his New Testament → he was
embraced by new scholars of England: Thomas More & John Colet
- 1516: Thomas More – Utopia
the King’s ambition to get rid of Catherine (she would bear Henry no male heir;
her daughter – Mary)
- 1527 – Wolsey, acting as Papal Legate, summoned Henry and ‘charged’ him
with having married his deceased brother’s wife – it was prohibited by the
Church
/Bull of Dispensation – since the marriage between Catherine and Arthur had
not been consummated, Catherine was not legally Henry’s deceased brother’s
wife and Henry could marry her/
→ was their marriage lawful? Bishops replied that it was lawful
- but Henry was determined to marry Anne Boleyn (the younger sister of his
sometime mistress, Mary Carey)
→ opposition: Charles V, the Emperor of the Habsburgs /his aunt was Catherine
of Aragon/
- Wolsey’s attempts to negotiate failed
→ a new counsellor was called in: Dr Cranmer → he made a suggestion that
the question whether the King had ever been legally married should be
submitted to the universities of Europe
→ eventually Wolsey was arrested for high treason and died on his way to the
Tower of London
- a committee was formed of all the lawyers in the House → they drafted the
necessary Bills in record time
- 1531: the clergy acknowledged that the King was ‘their especial Protector, one
and supreme lord’
→ the Queen was commanded to retire to Wolsey’s former palace at Moor – she
and her daughter Mary were banished from Court

→ Henry had 6 wives: Catherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Anne
of Cleves, Catherine Howard, Catherine Parr
→ the divorce brought about the break with Rome and the position of the
English monarch as head of the Church of England
→ Anne Boleyn – mother of Elizabeth I /born in 1533/; Anne was beheaded
- Acts of Appeals discarded the Pope’s right to rule in English Church law suits
- The Act of Supremacy made the English monarch the supreme head of the
Church of England
- Treasons Act made it a high treasonable offence - that is punishable by
execution - to deny the monarch’s supremacy

→ John Fisher, the Bishop of Rochester rebelled → executed in June 1535 +

More in July
- 1536: Henry married Jane Seymour → son Edward (future Edward VI) → Jane
died under crude surgery
- Dissolution of Monasteries
- Thomas Cromwell: - his greatest accomplishment: the inception of the
Government service of modern England
- uncommemorated architect of the great departments of state
- 1536: Privy Council /'prıvi!/ (replaced the King’s Council) → executive board
of advisers and governors
- through this system: financial reforms of England
- e.g. distanced the financing of royalty (Civil List) from that of government

- 1535: printed Bibles appeared (translated into English by Tyndale &

Coverdale)
- 1536: Cromwell ordered the Paternoster & Commandments to be taught in the
mother tongue

- revolt: ’The Pilgrimage of Grace’ → the rebels captured the King’s Tax
Commissioners → he responded with a threat; in 1537 the rebellion collapsed

- Cromwell suggested marriage with Anne of Cleves /→ union with North

German Lutheran princes/
→ the marriage was never consummated (el nem hált házasság) (Henry thought
her plain and uninteresting)

→ Catherine Howard was presented to Henry

→ Cromwell was condemned under a Bill of Attainder - heresy &
‘broadcasting’ erroneous books → executed
- Henry married Catherine Howard (5th wife – prettiest – 21)
→ her reckless love for her cousin, Thomas Culpeper, was discovered → Henry
had her head chopped off
Henry married Catherine Parr in 1543.
- Henry’s antagonism against Scotland and France
- but: he understood that bringing England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales into
some form of co-existence was a foremost responsibility of any King of England

29
- easiest part of this task: achieve unity with Wales
- 1543: the Act for the Government of Wales was passed (Wales was under
English law)
→ 24 Welsh parliamentary representatives were sent
to Westminster
→ new Courts of Great Session were established
- it is from this date that the Welsh language began its decline
The war with Scotland and France had already started:
- 1542: the Scottish expedition against England failed
James V was killed → child Mary (infant of one week) – new Queen of Scots
→ Henry claimed her for the bride of his own son and heir; but her mother was
a French Princess, Mary of Guise
→ the pro-French Catholic party wanted Mary to be the bride of a French prince

- 1543: secret treaty between Henry & Charles V (the Emperor) → against
France
- the execution of the plan failed
(Henry captured Boulogne; the Emperor made a separate treaty with the French
King:
→ it allowed Boulogne to remain English for 8 years – but then to be handed
back
→ war with Scotland & France at the same time
Thomas Cranmer, Stephen Gardiner, Duke of Norfolk → all supported Henry
- question: who would become Protector to the young King Edward when Henry
VIII died?
- 1546: Norfolk & his son Surrey were arrested for treason → sent to the Tower;
both were executed
- Protector of the nine-year-old King – the vacillating Hertford, Duke of
Somerset

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN (1547-1557)

- 1547: Henry VIII died → son: Edward VI – his guardian and counsellor:
Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset
→ rebellion led by Robert Ket against land enclosures
→ rioters in Exeter
→ problems because of Henry’s debasement of the coinage
- John Dudley, Earl of Warwick, marched to Ket’s camp to suppress the uprising
→ Ket was hanged
→ Warwick became the leader of the Opposition
- 1552: Somerset was executed
- Warwick: - created himself Duke of Northumberland
- restructured the Privy Council
- he became Lord President of the Council
 - returned Boulogne to the French and withdrew English soldiers from
Scotland
- 1552: 2nd edition of Book of Common Prayer /published by Cranmer/
- it had to be approved by Parliament and supported by the Acts of Uniformity
(it was from this point that the authority of the Church of England became
reliant upon Parliament)

→ Edward VI was dying → successor: Mary – problem: she is Catholic

→ Northumberland (Warwick) persuaded Edward to disinherit Mary &
Elizabeth in favour of Lady Jane Grey /daughter of the Marquess of Dorset/
- 1553: Edward VI died → Lady Jane Grey was proclaimed Queen in London
- the common people supported Mary
→ Mary & Elizabeth entered London → Lady Jane & her husband were
consigned to the Tower
- Northumberland was executed
- Mary: released Stephen Gardiner from the Tower and made him Lord
Chancellor
→ the Queen’s single ambition was reunion with Rome

→ she could not restore to the Church the lands parcelled out among the nobility
→ rioting in London

- Mary married the future Philip II of Spain → he demanded the execution of

Elizabeth - Mary refused it, they sent Elizabeth into prison
- 1555: Gardiner died → Cardinal Pole became Archbishop of Canterbury
Bloody Mary
- 1555: the faggots consumed the Protestant bishops, Latimer and Ridley
- 1556: recantation and final heroic end of Cranmer (he claimed that the Pope is
Christ’s enemy and anti-Christ)

CHAPTER NINETEEN (1558-1587)

- 1558: Mary died – she failed to reverse the Reformation + she lost Calais in
1557
- Queen Elizabeth I (25) came to the throne (45-year reign!)
• ablest protestant minds around her: Matthew Parker – Archbishop of
Canterbury
Nicholas Bacon – Lord Keeper of the Great Seal
Roger Ascham – foremost scholar of the day
William Cecil – civil servant
→ England became Protestant by law
→ Puritans appear: extreme Protestants – their theology was largely based on
Calvinism
→ Elizabeth represented a serious threat to Catholicism /in Europe/

31
- 1559: the Acts of Supremacy and Uniformity were passed (Act of U: use of the
Book of Common Prayer is compulsory + divine service + the administration of
sacraments)
1563: the Thirty-Nine Articles
- next important matter: the continuation of the dynasty (finding a husband for
the Queen)
Mary Stuart – The Queen of Scots – a descendant of Henry VII; she married
her cousin, Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley – result: disaster – the old feudal
factions seized Scotland in their grip, Mary’s power melted away
- her husband became a tool of her opponents – she connived at his murder and
married his murderer, James Hepburn
- in 1568 she escaped into England and threw herself upon the mercy of
Elizabeth – she imprisoned Mary
- conspiracies against Elizabeth’s life, but she was well served: Francis
Walsingham tracked down Spanish agents and English traitors (secret service)
- the northern part of England was mainly Catholic
- the south: Protestant
- 1569: Northern Rebellion – the start of some 7 years of instability in
Elizabethan England
- 1570: the Pope excommunicated Elizabeth and issued an order that loyal
Catholics should get rid of her
- 1585: Philip II of Spain seized all the English ships in his ports and made plans
to invade England
- 1585: association of Protestant gentry was formed for the defence of
Elizabeth’s life
- conspiracy: Anthony Babington (an English Catholic) – Mary’s connivance
was undeniable
- Elizabeth was at last persuaded that her death was a political necessity
- after a formal trial Mary was pronounced guilty of treason
- 1587: execution of Mary Stuart

CHAPTER TWENTY (1587-1602)

- wonderful period of English maritime exploration – real reasons: trade + slave
trade + piracy + the Elizabethan patriotic pastime: robbing the Spaniards
- Martin Frobisher – the Queen granted him a licence to explore
- Humphrey Gilbert – the first who interested the Queen in finding a route to
China
– first who realised that there were too many people in England
- Gilbert had 6 ships, made adventures – no success
- 1583: Gilbert took possession of Newfoundland – no permanent settlement
was made
- 1584: Gilbert died – his ship Squirrel foundered – Walter Raleigh continued
- 1585: Roanoke Island was named Virginia
John Hawkins – seaman, his pupil: Francis Drake – he became a terror for the
Spanish
- his attacks drove Spain to war
1588: the English defeated the Spanish Armada
- rivalry among her courtiers: Walter Raleigh + Robert Devereux /Earl of
Essex/ – both fought in Cadiz against Spain
- the Queen feared that Devereux would become more popular than she
- he was given a fleet to fight a new Armada in the Azores – the weather saved
them (Philip of Spain died)
Essex had to leave the Court – then came a chance for his redemption:
- troubles in Ireland - Essex was allowed to go to Ireland with a huge army in
1599
Essex’s orders were to subdue Ulster and the Earl of Tyrone, Hugh O’Neill
/Spanish backing/
- Essex turned south, to Leinster – then hurried back to London – in 1601: Essex
died in the Tower
- poverty in the country - 1536: Poor Laws were introduced

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE (1603-1624)

- 1603: Elizabeth I died – James VI of Scotland - James I of England (1603 -
end of the Tudor dynasty)
James I – son of Mary, Queen of Scots + Darnley (2nd husband)
- he became King as a result of the Treaty of Berwick
- 1586: Treaty of Berwick: signed by James VI and Elizabeth (they’d respect
each other’s religions, be allies and help if the other were to be invaded and
neither side would help anyone who threatened the other + James got money)
- 1604-1610: Parliament
- his closest adviser: Robert Cecil
- 1604: James ordered the Jesuits out of England + Puritans

- a small group of Catholic gentry tried to blow up James and his Parliament by
gunpowder in Westminster /leaders: Robert Catesby + Guy Fawkes = Powder
Traitors – they were captured
- Parliament banned Catholics from living anywhere near London, from holding
public or official office
+ allowed James to take over 2/3 of the lands owned by Catholics
- most important: Catholics were to swear an oath of allegiance to the Crown

1604: the Protestants, led by Bishop Bancroft, and the Puritans met the King at
Hampton Court
- James was brought up by Calvinists – he disliked them
Puritans wanted to be rid of the more ceremonial features of Rome (vestments,
genuflexion, sign of the cross at baptism, confirmation, wedding rings)

33
- leader of the Puritan delegation: Dr John Reynolds – his request: a new version
of the Bible
(different translations: Tyndale’s, Coverdale’s, the Geneva Bible, ‘the Bishop’s
Bible’ of Queen Elizabeth)
- committees were set up in Oxford, Cambridge and Westminster – 50 scholars
and divines
- revision: tendentious (elfogult) renderings were forbidden, marginal notes or
glosses were prohibited
- the committees finished their task by 1609 – supervision
1611: the Authorized Version of the Bible was produced /no new version was
necessary for nearly 300 years/

- James was descended from both Tudors and Stuarts

- step to unite the two thrones - King James’s proclamation for the name of the
Union: Great Britain
1604: the name GB was first used – but: James would never see Parliament pass
an Act of Union
Walter Raleigh + some other Elizabethans had been in prison from 1603
- he was accused of plotting with Spain to put the King’s cousin Arabella Stuart
on the throne

George Villiers: favourite of James I – Villiers gained Raleigh’s release

- Raleigh led an expedition to Guiana in search of El Dorado - his men attacked
a Spanish settlement
– Raleigh was beheaded
 preparing good relations with Spain (Churchill’s view: the English people
weren’t impressed – „This deed of shame sets a barrier for ever between King
James and the English people”)

- 1613: James’s daughter, Elizabeth, married the Elector Palatine of Rhine

/Protestant zealot/
- 1618: Frederick became King of Bohemia and Elizabeth Queen of Bohemia –
he became the leader of the Protestant revolt - ‘The Winter King’ – he was
King for a very short period
Robert Carr: favourite of James I – George Villiers succeeded Carr - became all-
powerful at Court
- friendship with Charles, Prince of Wales
- 1623: Villiers and the Prince travelled together to Spain - Charles claimed the
Infanta of Spain as his bride
- but: the Spaniards demanded concessions for the English Catholics
 Parliament wanted war (a naval conflict) - James wanted war in Europe, on
the land
- Elizabeth wanted James to rescue Frederic’s lands
- Villiers suggested involving France - France agreed to supply 3000 cavalry,
commander: Count Mansfeld
idea: the combined force would fight their way to the Palatinate
- mutual suspicion (France – England)
- the French King refused to let the English land in France
- the English had to go to the Netherlands – they froze or fell foul of disease
1625 – James I died

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO (1625-1639)

Charles I (25) came to the throne – son of James I & Anne of Denmark (shy,
artistic + he stammered)
- Charles married the French Henrietta Maria (7 children – future Charles II &
James II)
(Maryland in America was named after Queen Henrietta Maria)
- Parliament began to take the lead
- Parliament wanted rid of George Villiers, the King’s closest adviser
Parliament blocked the supply of money
- Charles tried to insist on ‘a Forced Loan’ – a tax without Parliament’s
approval – the judges turned him down

- 1628: Parliament assembled – supported the war with France - four

resolutions:
1. no freeman ought to be restrained or imprisoned unless some lawful cause is
expressed
2. the writ of habeas corpus ought to be granted to every man imprisoned or
restrained (even though it might not be at the command of the King or of the
Privy Council)
3. if no legal cause for imprisonment is shown, that party ought to be set free or
bailed
4. it is the ancient and undoubted right of every freeman to have a full and
absolute property in his goods and estate, and no tax, loan, benevolence ought to
be levied by the King or his Ministers without common consent by Act of
Parliament

- the House framed the Petition of Right (1628) – it threatened the Royal
Prerogative
 it emphasized the common freedoms of the people by citing the law from
Edward I’s time by which no tallage or aid shall be laid or levied by the King
without the consent of magnates and freemen

The King accepted it – the Commons voted all the subsidies

- Charles dismissed the Houses and, with Buckingham, planned an expedition to
La Rochelle where Protestant Huguenots were besieged – but: Buckingham was

35
assassinated

- in 1640 Charles, under enormous pressure, summoned another Parliament - the

Long Parliament
- throughout this time Charles battled for the preservation of the Royal
Prerogative
- William Laud emerged as a major influence on Charles (Archbishop of
Canterbury since 1633)
- Laud found a new source of revenue for the Crown – people were fined if they
did not attend church
- Laud: the Scots must adopt the English Prayer Book, and enter into
communion with their English brethren
 first mistake
- 2nd mistake - Charles planned to confiscate Scottish Church lands taken by
Scottish nobles since the Reformation – result: the nobility turned against him
- 1638: General Assembly of Scotland – gathered to adjust religious differences
The Marquess of Hamilton ordered its dissolution
- the Assembly refused to dissolve upon the demand of the King’s commissioner
- the 3rd mistake was made by Hamilton
(the supporters of the Assembly: Covenanters - they had a strong army
Alexander Leslie – Scottish Field-Marshal; Scotland had a strong army in a few
months
- 1639: Scottish army opposite Charles’s forces – the first Bishops’ War
- in the King’s camp: no united desire to make war upon the Scots

- 1639: the ‘Pacification of Berwick’ was agreed – the Scots promised to

disband their army
- the King promised to summon a General Assembly and a Parliament
(for the King – device to gain time)
- Sir Thomas Wentworth advised the King that war with Scotland was the way
forward
- Charles needed money – his wife could not help him - the Queen’s closest
adviser was a Scotsman: George Con - tried to raise Catholic troops
- the Scots crossed the border

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE (1640-1649)

- Personal Rule: the period when Charles I governed without Parliament with
his King’s Council /11 years/
- the first Parliament of 1640: Short Parliament /3 weeks in April/
- under the leadership of a Puritan called John Pym, Parliament wanted to
discuss 11 years of grievances before giving Charles his money - Charles
dissolved Parliament
- Charles was defeated in the second Bishops’ War – summoned Parliament:
(his last)
- 1640: Long Parliament – leaders of the House of Commons: John Pym, John
Hampolen
- Strafford (minister) was charged with treason – the Commons produced an Act
of Attainder (no formal trial is needed) – he was executed (later Laud was also
executed)
- Triennial Acts – there couldn’t be more than a 3-year gap between Parliaments
- Why did the Civil War start? – Scots invaded England; the King needed money
to fight them; Parliament had to be called to get that money; the destruction of
the King’s inner cabinet by the zealous Pym; the Irish rebellion

- document: Grand Remonstrance (200 articles) – it told the King where

Parliament stood - it was put to the vote in 1641 – the Parliamentarians won
Charles offered Pym the job of Chancellor of the Exchequer - he turned it down
- Charles made Opposition Lords members of his Privy Council

- 1642: Charles decided to prosecute his opponents for high treason: Pym,
Hampden, Holles, Hazelrigg, Strode
- the King & 300-400 swordsmen (the Cavaliers) went down to the House of
Commons to demand the surrender of the 5 – they were not there because they
had been warned
- Londoners gathered at the Palace – Charles and his Court escaped from the
capital to Hampton Court
- the London mobs were well organized, they included the Guild and Trade
apprentices (their haircuts
- the Roundheads)

- Royalists: nobility, many boroughs, North and West

- Parliament: tradesmen, merchants, aristocracy, London

- 1642: the King raised his royal standard in Nottingham – formal declaration of
war
- the Queen found refuge in Holland – sent armies and trained officers (sold the
Crown jewels)
- the Navy adhered to Parliament – blockade
- 2 nephews joined Charles: Prince Rupert of the Rhine & Prince Maurice

- 1642: Edgehill Battle /first major battle of the Civil War/

Roundhead commander: Sir William Waller; Royalist general: Sir Ralph Hopton
– close friends
Waller’s army: ‘the Lobsters’ – looked like moving fortresses
 draw

37
- the first Commander of the Parliamentary forces: Essex (Edgehill, Newbury)
after his defeat at Lostwithiel in 1644 he resigned

- peace movement - peace negotiations

- 2 armies clashed at Newbury
- Pym died /of cancer/

- Charles: declared Parliament to be undemocratic and called a Counter-

Assembly to his headquarters at Oxford – 258 members of the Lords and
Commons went to the King

- an army of 21,000 Scots crossed the border - they fancied they could force
Presbyterian Church on the English
They dominated the northern Royalist counties. → they made 3 principal
demands:
1. imposition of Presbyterianism throughout England
2. a share in the government
3. the maintenance of the monarchy

- Lord Manchester and Cromwell – leaders of Roundheads, Scots and Puritans

- 1644: Battle of Marston Moor – the bloodiest battle of the Civil War -
disaster for the Royalist cause
Ironsides – a force of cavalry raised by Cromwell
→ Battle of Newbury – no conclusion
Charles returned to Oxford; Cromwell returned to Westminster – tried to
convince the Parliamentarians of the need to change the organization of the
army
→ New Model Army (uniform – red coats)
- 1645: Sir Thomas Fairfax was appointed General
- Parliament introduced the Self-Denying Ordinance: banned Members of
either House from military service
- 1645: Cromwell was made General of the Horse
- 1645: Battle of Naseby – success of the New Model Army – conclusion of the
‘first’ Civil War
→ they discovered secret correspondence with the Queen – he hoped for Irish
Catholic support
- Civil War: 1642-46; 1648-49
- increases in taxation; money paid to the sheriff/bailiff: scot; billeting
→ the King escaped to Leicester → then he turned to Scots → he became a
prisoner
- 1647: the Scots handed over Charles to Parliamentary Commissioners and
returned to their country
Problems:
 Parliament wanted the King to agree to its demands, wanted to disband as
much of the army as possible, wanted to retain the power it believed it had won
in battle
 Ironside Army (22,000 strong) – no more need of the Army – but: they are not
paid
 the Levellers: a group led by John Lilburne – they wanted social distinctions
removed – levelled – in society
The army began to lean on Parliament – the result was the second Civil War
- everyone turned against the New Model Army and Cromwell
- by 1648: Cromwell was Dictator: Parliament was a tool; the Constitution was
a figment; the Scots were rebuffed; the Fleet was reorganized
→ the King escaped to Carisbrooke - the army went there and took the King to
the mainland
→ a detachment locked Parliament - Pride’s Purge /Colonel Thomas Pride led
it/ (Pride ezredes puccsa)
→ 60 radical Independents in the Commons → the Rump (Csonka Parlament)
(the group of Long Parliamentarians who kept their seats and announced that
England was to be a Commonwealth)
- Charles I was brought before a High Court → beheaded

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR (1649-1660)

- Jan 1649: England became a Republic
→ the monarchy, the House of Lords, the Anglican Church were all abolished
→ a new great seal was minted (a map of England; the House of Commons)
→ Scotland was integrated; Ireland was savaged
→ war was declared on the Dutch
→ adultery became punishable by death

- the country was to be governed by a Council of State: 41 members

- the Diggers: a group led by Gerard Winstanley – set up a commune of
farmers → he wanted to get rid of the landlords – the common land should be
common to all
- 1649: Cromwell’s campaign in Ireland → Ireland was divided → Cromwell’s
massacre at Drogheda

→ the late King’s eldest son was proclaimed King of Great Britain, France and
Ireland in Scotland
→ Charles II → condition: he has to support the Presbyterian cause

- Battle of Dunbar: Cromwell won against the Scots

- at Scone: the Scots crowned Charles King
- 1651: Battle of Worcester → Cromwell defeated the Scots → the King hid in
a tree (the Royal Oak), then escaped to Holland

39
- Cromwell called together an assembly → Barebones Parliament (‘Saints’)

- 1653 Instrument of Government /the only written constitution Britain has

ever had/ - it was designed to establish a Protectorate and to create a balance
between the Army and Parliament
- 1653: Cromwell was declared Lord Protector → he dissolved Parliament
- Royalist plot: Penruddock’s Rising - unsuccessful
- 1655: Cromwell split England and Wales into 11 districts → each was run by a
Major-General (he policed, taxed, administered)
- 1655: war with Spain – no money: Cromwell has to summon a Parliament
- Cromwell excluded 100 of his opponents from the House + 60 withdrew
voluntarily → opposition still
→ a group of lawyers and gentry decided to offer Cromwell the Crown
- 1657: Parliament produced a constitution called A Humble Petition and
Advice
→ this allowed Cromwell to name his successor and to choose his own council
of rulers
→ + offered Cromwell the Crown - he refused it /because of the army!/
- 1658: Cromwell died → the great experiment, the Commonwealth, the
Republic, died with him
Cromwell’s son, Richard, took over as Lord Protector
- the abolition of the monarchy failed because there was no structured party
system
Richard’s nickname: ‘Tumbledown Dick’
- he was accepted by the Army, but then had to realize that the command of the
Army was not hereditary
- Parliament was summoned
→ within 4 months Richard Cromwell found himself deserted → dissolution of
Parliament
→ the Army resolved to be reconciled with Parliament – it marched before the
house of Speaker Lenthall
→ they submitted themselves to the authority of Parliament and hailed the
Speaker as their general
→ introduction of free elections

biggest industry: cloth (cottage industry); new industry: coal → beginning of

private enterprise industry
- 1660: Charles II entered London – Restoration

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE (1660-1681)

Before Charles II could return, one significant announcement was needed:
→ the Declaration of Breda → probably written by Chancellor Edward Hyde
(‘Let Bygones be Bygones’)
→ elections for a new Parliament were held → Presbyterians and Royalists in
majority
→ Lords and Commons restored
→ Fleet to Holland for the King → ship Naseby
→ Edward Montagu, Samuel Pepys → men responsible for restoring Charles
- it was not only the restoration of the monarchy; it was the restoration of
Parliament - Everyone took it for granted that the Crown was the instrument of
Parliament and the King the servant of his people.
 the first signs of a democratic system of government were emerging and the
first political parties appeared

- all the Parliamentary acts that Charles I had agreed were legal → everything
else was illegal
- beginning of ‘power sharing’ → more people in the governing
→ Charles II wanted Parliament to pay his debts
→ Charles II was known as the Merry Monarch + a ‘rogue’ (14 bastards)
- his chief minister: Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon; his daughter, Anne,
married the King’s brother, Duke of York, who was to become James II
- Charles II ruled through his Privy Council
- the Cabal: Clifford, Arlington, Buckingham, Ashley, Lauderdale
- 1661-1679: the Cavalier Parliament - the longest of Parliaments
- First Minister: Clarendon (Hyde)
- Secretary of State: Henry Bennett /the King’s favourite/
- Clarendon went into exile; Charles II was guided by Arlington and
Buckingham
→ Catholic threat (the Queen was Catholic, James was a convert to
Catholicism)

- the Treaty of Dover (Charles II & Louis XIV)

• it provided England with cash
• promise that England would help Louis in a third war against the Dutch
- secret clause: Charles II will declare himself a Catholic as soon as the welfare
of his realm will permit

- 1673: Test Act – no man could hold office or a King’s commission, who would
not solemnly declare his disbelief in the doctrine of Transubstantiation
(átlényegülés)
- the Duke of York married a Catholic princess, Mary of Modena after the death
of Anne
Confrontation between 2 political opponents:
 Earl of Danby → he built the Court party; Economy, Anglicanism,
independence from France
 Shaftesbury, Lord Chancellor - he wanted a parliament that was free

41
from the Crown
- he was against standing armies
- he wanted religious tolerance
- 1679: Act of Exclusion /Shaftesbury/ - intended to exclude James from
succeeding Charles – it failed
- 1679-1681: Shaftesbury organized petitions and fought 3 elections
- Shaftesbury started in effect the first political party: the Whigs
- the gentry, opposition: the Tories
Whig: a sour, bigoted, canting, money-grubbing Scots Presbyterian
Tories: Irish papist bandits ravaging estates and manor houses

Danby contrived a marriage between Mary /the Duke of York’s daughter/ and
William of Orange /Protestant/
Danby was sent to the Tower
- 1665: bubonic plague (bubópestis) in England → the fire destroyed the plague
(this theory doesn’t stand)
- Christopher Wren - architect → rebuilt London churches

- 1664: war with Holland – ship building

- 1666: great battle of North Foreland
- the French joined in – time to sue for peace: the Dutch ceded to Charles New
Amsterdam – Charles renamed it after his brother, the Duke of York

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX (1682-1684)

- when Charles returned to England, he wanted to restore the Church of England
- 1660: Worcester House Declaration → weakened the power of the bishops
- Clarendon Code of 1662: re-established the Anglican Church – it destroyed
all chance of a United National Church; it consisted of a series of statutes:
→ the Corporation Act: was to confine municipal office
→ the Act of Uniformity: imposed upon the clergy the Prayer Book of Queen
Elizabeth
→ the Conventicle Act: sought to prevent the ejected clergy from preaching to
audiences of their own
→ the Five-Mile Act of 1665: forbade them to go within 5 miles of any City,
etc. where they held a living
→ The Prayer Book Act: make it available in every church in Wales
- Nicholas Culpeper: a radical
- Charles’s brother in exile; in 1682 James returned to England – many plots
against Charles, but he was not killed because his brother was a Catholic
- 1685: King Charles II died from natural causes

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN (1685-1686)

→ new king: James II → he is Catholic!! (the 1st Catholic monarch of England
since Bloody Mary)
- by his first marriage (to the Earl of Clarendon’s daughter) he had 2 daughters:
Mary and Anne
- James ordered the release of imprisoned Catholics who were in gaol for not
going to church
- first real challenge to James II – the Monmouth Rebellion
- 1685: Parliament – dominated by Tories
- Monmouth: - mother: Lucy Walter, mistress of Charles II; he married the
Countess of Buccleuch
- Protestant; he had been an alternative choice as King;
→ Monmouth denounced James as a usurper and accused him of having
murdered Charles II
- he was captured and executed

- George Jeffreys, first Baron of Wem → ‘the Bloody Assize’ – later he was
made Lord Chancellor
- James proposed to his council the repeal of the Test Act and the Habeas
Corpus Act
1685 – James declared that the militia was useless + he would not dismiss his
Catholic officers
→ James prorogued (berekeszt) Parliament
→ the Anglican Church led the opposition - centre of opposition: London -
Henry Compton, a bishop
- James issued his famous ‘Directions to Preachers’ – it told the clergy to stick
to less contentious matters
They refused. James set up his Commission for Ecclesiastical Causes → it
suspended Bishop Compton
→ Compton invited William of Orange with his army to England /son-in-law to
the King/

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT (1687-1688)

- 1688: Britain was once more on the brink of civil war
- 1687: James made a Declaration of Indulgence → it suspended the laws
against dissenters and Catholics
- Danby joined the conspiracy to bring Prince William and an army to England
- 1687: James issued a second Declaration of Indulgence → it was left unread
- the protesting bishops were sent to the Tower
- 1688: James II’s son was born → Old Pretender
- James put Catholics in prominent positions
- rebellion – James was allowed to escape from England → 2 years later he
landed in Ireland with French troops and laid siege to Londonderry
→ James was defeated at the Battle of the Boyne (Chapter 29) → died in

43
France in 1701
- 1688: William of Orange landed in England
- the Whigs were on William’s side
- the Tories were the party of the Crown
→ William called a meeting in London

→ one month later a Declaration of Rights was made → it offered the Crown
to William and Mary
→ 12 months later it became an Act of Parliament
In 1689 the Tories decided that they wanted William’s wife, Mary, to rule as
Regent, but on James’s behalf, so that James remained King – this proposal was
defeated
William declared that he didn’t want to be, as he called it, ‘a gentleman usher’ to
his wife
Mary declared that she wished to rule as Queen with her husband, William, as
King
- the most important section of the Declaration of Rights: in future no Catholic
could be monarch
→ William King of England, Ireland and France
He wanted the crown for 2 reasons: his wife had a hereditary claim on England
+ the submission of France
He was regarded as an oaf, a bore, an uncouth King.
- he wanted war with France – but there was a more immediate matter: the
coming of the Jacobites

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE (1689-1701)

- by the 17th century, Scotland was ruled by London
- James landed in Ireland in 1689 – he was welcomed as a deliverer
- he reigned in Dublin, the whole island passed under the control of the
Jacobites
- the most widespread support for Jacobitism was in Scotland
- the Jacobites mounted a rebellion in 1689
- 1689: John Graeme led his Jacobites against William’s men
→ the French fleet was putting to sea
- a battle was fought north of Dublin – William might have been killed – flight
of James
William went to take Dublin & to establish his rule over Ireland, and was free to
take Britain to war in Europe
1692 – Battle of Cape La Hogue
The Nine Years’ War (War of the League of Augsburg)
1693 – Battle of Landen
National Debt – moneylenders loaned money to the government
- in 1694 a Royal Charter was issued - its title was ‘The Governor and
Company of the Bank of England’
- the man who invented the National Debt and the Bank of England was a Whig
called Charles Montagu
- senior officers of the Crown: Lord High Steward of England (Viceroy) – Lord
High Chancellor – Lord High Treasurer – Lord President of the King’s Privy
Council – the Lord Privy Seal – the Lord Great Chamberlain – Constable – Earl
Marshal – Lord High Admiral
Sunderland’s idea of a small inner group – created what is now called Cabinet
Government
1694 – Queen Mary died childless
- a formal reconciliation was effected between William and Anne (James II’s
other daughter)
1697 France conceded that the war must end and signed, with England, the Holy
Roman Empire, Spain, and the Netherlands, the Treaty of Ryswick (truce)
- at the end of the war with Louis, England became isolationist
- William’s life and strength were ebbing
- The Act of Settlement
 through a line descending from the daughter of James, the throne should pass
to the House of Hanover
 every sovereign had to be a member of the Church of England
 no foreign-born monarch could go to war without Parliament’s absolute
permission
- James II died – his son, James Edward Stuart, was proclaimed by his father’s
court as James III of England and VIII of Scotland
- significant point: Louis XIV announced that he recognized the son, the Old
Pretender as King of England
The whole nation became resolute for war.
- 1702 – William fell from his horse and broke his collar-bone
- Anne became Queen
- England’s involvement in the War of Spanish Succession – this gave Britain
the island of Minorca and a tiny colony: Gibraltar

CHAPTER THIRTY (1702-1706)

Queen Anne – last of the Stuart monarchs – came to the throne in 1702
- a Protestant; childless (she was pregnant 18 times)
Age of Anne – the greatest manifestations of the power of England
- art and science flourished
- the beginning of Queen Ann’s reign – a period of Tory prosperity
- 1702 the Grand Alliance of England, the Dutch Republic and the Holy Roman
Empire in support of the Habsburg, Charles III, declared war on the Franco-
Spanish Alliance
- 1703 – the Grand Alliance was losing ground to the French
- 1704: The Battle of Blenheim – leader: Marlborough – English victory

45
 ruin of a greater part of Louis XIV’s army – great shock to the French
- 1706: Battle of Ramillies – this battle won for the Alliance the whole of
Belgium

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE (1707-1713)

- 1707 Act of Union with England and Scotland became law (the Act linked
Scotland with the 1536 union of England and Wales)
Churchill: reasons why union happened at this point – he suggests that the War
of Spanish Succession played its part – Britain’s military prowess + England’s
financial generosity to the Scots
2 separate events: 1. the union of the crowns (in 1603 James VI of Scotland
became James I of England)
- anyone born in Scotland after James came to the throne was also
English – a full E. citizen
2. the Union itself – the Act of Union united the two Parliaments
- before the Act of Union could become law, there were many differences to
resolve
 the Scottish Parliament forced through four Acts which the Queen’s men
could never accept
1. outlawed the Episcopalians
2. stopped the Queen going to war without the Scottish Parliament’s agreement
3. allowed French wines to be imported (breaking the trade embargo)
4. ultimate hold over England: if the Queen died without an heir, then
Parliament could appoint her successor
- Act of Security – Anne was advised to veto it (there could be 2 monarchs after
her death)
- in 1705 the English Parliament passed the Alien Act – one nation-one monarch
law
The Act of Union was passed:
after Anne’s death, the throne was to descend to the Hanoverians
- there was to be one Parliament – 45 Scottish Members + 16 peers
- the Scots would keep their own legal system
- they would have the freedom to trade on equal terms with England and the
colonies
1707 – end of the War of Spanish Succession – 9 Treaties of Utrecht
Whig Junto – Sunderland, Marlborough
Godolphin – Lord Treasurer
Marlborough returned to war, but the nation grew weary of the conflict
1708 – battle at Oudenarde; Bruges and Ghent fell
Battle of Malplaquet
- Tory majority in the House of Commons – Hartley
- Whigs still controlled the House of Lords
- Marlborough was hounded into exile
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO (1714-1720)
- succession: some wanted the Old Pretender to be King, others George of
Hanover
- the 1701 Tory-dominated Parliament had passed the Act of Settlement
- there were 6 Hanoverian monarchs from George I to Queen Victoria
1714 – Queen Anne died – George I became King (he didn’t speak English)
- the Jacobites, the supporters of the Old Pretender, were not yet done – raised
an army
Parliament passed the Riot Act – if riotous assemblies of 12 or more people
didn’t disperse after they been read a royal proclamation to do so, they’d be
guilty of a capital felony
- a reward was posted for the Pretender, dead or alive
- The Fifteen (the Jacobite rising of 1715) ended with the Old Pretender
escaping to France – he died in 1766
- the Whigs established control of the Parliamentary machine (the Tories were a
broken political force – they were denounced as Jacobites)

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE (1721-26)

- 1721 - Robert Walpole became the first Prime Minister of Great Britain (spoke
with a Norfolk farmer’s accent)
- he brought political stability to Britain and set the style and method of
government management
(Secretary of War; leader of the Whig Junto in the Commons; Post-Master
General;  Chancellor of the Exchequer and First Lord of the Treasury)
- he instituted the Sinking Fund in 1717 (a sum of money was set aside from the
revenue to pay off the National Debt)
- George I and Walpole (the PM) communicated in Latin
- the industrial revolution – Jethro Tull – invented the wheeled seed drill +
developed a hoe drawn by a horse
- by the early 1700s the monarchy lost its Englishness, its Britishness
- foreign affairs: Spain was demanding the return of Gibraltar from Great Britain
Russia joined Austria; Spain also joined Austria (Treaty of Vienna in 1725)
- Parliament didn’t want to go to war but Townshend brought together an anti-
Austria cabal in the name of the House of Hanover – it never came to war

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR (1727-46)

- 1727 - George I died - his son became George II – the Queen: Caroline
Ansbach – Walpole’s strongest ally
- new Prince of Wales – Frederick – the hope of the Opposition
- by the mid-1730s, Austria (Britain’s ally) was fighting Spain and France (also
Britain’s allies)
- the Spanish stopped English ships – Walpole wanted to settle the question by

47
negotiation (the Convention of Prado) – this would not save Britain from war:
The War of Jenkins’s Ear
- Patriots – Whig Opposition
- Walpole was not a manager of military conflict – in 1742 he resigned
- the nephew of George II, Frederick, became King of Prussia
- Lord Wilmington became Prime Minister (not-very-bright)
William Pitt – member of the Prince of Wales’s alternative court
- 1740 the War of the Austrian Succession began
- Britain engaged in the war because it had a treaty with Austria, and the fear
that her old enemies, the French, might gain the Austrian Netherlands was
worrying for George II
- Maria Theresa fought alone to defend her right to the Austrian throne
(Pragmatic Sanction), then 30,000 British soldiers went to the Continent to
help her (the Pragmatic Army)
- 1743 - the King himself took part in the campaign
- Henry Pelham became the nation’s 3rd Prime Minister
- 1745 – withdrawal of the British troops
- 1745 – the Jacobites were once more on the march and the Forty-Five was in
the making
The uprising was led by Bonnie Prince Charlie, the Young Pretender
(there had been 3 Jacobite risings before the Forty-Five in 1708, 1715 (11th Earl
of Mar – but: no French support) and 1719 (a skirmish at Glen Shiel) – they had
3 things in common: bad timing, bad organization and false hope)
- by September 1745, Charles was ruler of most of Scotland in the name of his
father, ‘King James VIII’
- his triumph was fleeting
(it was at this point that the words of a patriotic song began to be sung in
London: ‘God save our Noble King…’)
- the Battle of Culloden (last land battle ever to be fought in Britain) - the Young
Pretender fled – became a drunkard

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE (1747-1751)

William Hogarth – ‘The Harlot’s Progress’; ‘The Rake’s Progress’; ‘Marriage à
la mode’; ‘The Election’
- 1751 – The Prince of Wales died (he was struck by a cricket ball)
- the Gregorian calendar was introduced by Henry Pelham
- 1748 Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle – conclusion of the War of the Austrian
Succession (inconclusive treaty)
- Robert Clive – later: Clive of India – he founded the rule of the British in
India
- 2 companies were making money out of India: the English East India
Company + the French Compagnie des Indies – in the beginning they were not
interested in gaining territory
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX (1752-1759)
- 1756-63 The Seven Years’ War – Britain and Prussia against France, Russia,
Austria, Sweden and Saxony
- France tried to invade Britain; Britain lost Minorca;
 this war was the first world war and the beginning of the British Empire
William Pitt – became Britain’s war leader
- the Black Hole of Calcutta – the British wanted revenge
- 1757 Militia Act – introduced by Pitt
- Marriage Act – a marriage is a civil contract in which both Church and State
had an interest
- 1759 – India was won for the British Empire by trading interests – Clive was
creating the foundations of the British Raj
- 1760 George II died (77) and Pitt resigned

CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN (1760-68)

The importance of George II’s reign was: the system of constitutional monarchy
was established: the monarch no longer reigned by divine right
- 1760 George III (22) became King – grandson of George II
- his political mentor was the Earl of Bute – later Prime Minister
- Peace of Paris in 1763 – considerable acquisitions (Canada, Nova Scotia,
Cape Breton, the right to navigate the Mississippi; in the West Indies: Grenada,
St Vincent, Dominica, Tobago; Florida; Senegal; Minorca was restored)
- new PM: George Grenville
- Hargreaves – invention: spinning-jenny  beginning of the Industrial
Revolution
- 1765 Parliament passed the Stamp Act
- next PM: the Marquess of Rockingham – he repealed the Stamp Act +
opposed war with the colonists
- then: PM – the Earl of Chatham (William Pitt the Elder)
- after him: PM – the Duke of Grafton

CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT (1768-1770)

- Captain James Cook – navigator, explorer, hydrographer – expedition: he
explored the edges of the Antarctic, disproved the hypothesis of the great
southern Continent
- colonial resistance, boycott of English goods
- Industrial Revolution: 22 new patents were registered in the 1710s; 205 in the
1760s; 1790s – 900 inventions
- Richard Arkwright – spinning frame powered by water
- James Watt – steam engine
- up to this point, every PM but one had been a Whig
- by 1769 the reign of the Whigs was about to be broken (they broke into Old

49
Whigs /followers of Pitt, Grenville and Newcastle/ and New Whigs /they said
that the King was a tyrant, corrupted Parliament and ignored the views of the
people)
- next PM: Lord North (1770-1782) – Tory (name comes from an Irish word
for outlaw)
- ended the Whig domination that existed since the death of Queen Anne in 1714
- attempts were made to reform Parliament; Adam Smith published The Wealth
of Nations
- Britain lost the American War of Independence
- 1832 Reform Bill
- Clive of India committed suicide  - a hero; his successor was Warren
Hastings
- North’s idea for India was ‘Shackle the great’
- France declared war on Britain in 1778

CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE (1770-1781)

- Boston Massacre; Boston Tea Party; ‘Taxation without representation’
- Coercion (Intolerable) Acts; Boston Port Bill; Justice Act; Quartering Act;
- 1775 beginning of the American War of Independence (Concord, Lexington) –
till 1783
- 1776 4 July – the Declaration of Independence
- 1777 Battle of Saratoga – the British lost
- in 1778 France joined the war – helped the Americans
- 1781 – the British surrendered at Yorktown
- 1783 – the Treaty of Versailles

CHAPTER FORTY (1782-1792)

1781 - Yorktown, the British were beaten
1783 - The Treaty of Paris - officially ended the American War of Independence
(in the document, the British monarch still called himself ‘King of France’)
- George III talked of giving up his crown & going back to Germany → he
didn't, but he became insane;
- the mood in Great Britain generally was one of anger
- the Government majority collapsed on a motion censuring the administration
of the Navy
- North informed the Commons that he would resign - !a milestone in
Parliamentary history: the House of Commons had the voting power to force the
resignation of a Prime Minister

- Possible successors:
Charles Waeson-Wentworth, the second Marquess of Rockingham ↔ the
second Earl Shelburne; both had advocated an end to the war and had even
opposed it in the first place, and both were Whigs.
- Shelburne couldn't maintain a majority without the help of the Rockingham
Whigs - George III called for Rockingham → Rockingham died, and Shelburne
became leader
Their view about the style & composition of the Government was different:
- Rockingham, Burke → a group of like-minded individuals who would present
a unified front to the King
- Shelburne → an intellectual; he was politically inept; supported the King's
right to choose his ministers

3 main groups emerged:

- Shelburne & his followers - including the future PM William Pitt (now
Chancellor of the Exchequer)
- North still commanded a considerable faction - coveted a renewal of office
- Charles James Fox, vehement critic of North's regime, brilliant, generous-
hearted, and inconsistent
Shelburne realized that freedom was the only practical policy – he and Fox
never got on: they disagreed over the way in which peace might be negotiated;
they even had different envoys in Paris where the talks were taking place.

Attitude to Ireland: North had attempted to make concessions & it was English
merchants who had opposed him
1779 - the Speaker of the Irish House of Commons, Edmond Sexton Pery,
reported that the restrictions were 'one general Cause of Distress in the economy
and the people' - cruel and short-sighted laws; it is not the interest of Great
Britain to keep Ireland in that state - the benefit of one nation constitutes that of
the other.
- partial laws: laws in favour of the English – ‘Were that fatal obstacle removed,
they would be united as much in affection, as they certainly are in interest…’
1780 - Arthur Young’s observations: they live on potatoes and milk, but the
Irish are athletic & strong, they drink whiskey to animate themselves to work
harder; more & more children wear shoes; the landlords are quite cruel to their
vassals; almost slavery.
2 bills were issued in the case (allowed the export of wool & glass, expanded
trade possibilities) – not much change.
Scotland: strong export trade – but the effects of the war were catastrophic. The
Scottish Tobacco Lords’ export trade fell by 40%. In 1783 they set up the first
Chamber of Commerce in Britain – they reached pre-war levels

December 1783 – George III asked William Pitt to form a government. Before
this, the Cabinet was not single minded, it was a coalition, as the King appointed
its members. New waves of thinking in late 17th-century (!) England →
American Revolution, caused mainly by the defects of the political system –
reform was necessary

51
→ to increase the number of boroughs which elected MPs;
→ Burke’s Economic Reform Act, 1782
→ Pitt’s speech, 1872: the representation was incomplete – his proposal was
rejected by 20 votes
→ Burke’s response: 2 different parties – “The one is juridicial, the other
political” – the first thinks that every man should govern himself, or send his
representative; in this light, the House of Commons is not a good representative
of the people. But Burke believes in the Constitution of Britain.
George III was called Good King George – people liked him, & disliked
politicians. In 1788 he fell ill – but he didn’t die.
A remarkable decade in England’s political and social history:
Tom Paine: The Rights of Man – anti-establishment thoughts; Gibbon: The
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire;
Turmoil, problems: John Wesley’s Methodist Movement; the Dissenters (Whig
supporters) became stronger;
Coalition administration led by Lord North and Charles James Fox → election
in 1784 – Pitt (& the King) won.
Supporters: Henry Dundas (kept the majority together), William Wilberforce
(the only one to have his confidence)
The Saints: the group gathered around Wilberforce – highly idealistic, religious:
they wanted to abolish the slave trade, etc., but the merchants opposed it; Pitt
failed to abolish it.
· India Act – it increased the possibilities of corruption…
· his good relationship with the King was very important; also, he could
learn from his mistakes.
· revision of the customs barriers – 86 different types of customs duties →
revision of tariffs – less smuggling
· modern machinery of the ‘Budget’ – the Audit Office was established.
· 1786 – Sinking Fund – Ł1 million was set aside to buy stock annually –
the interest was used to reduce the National Debt
1788 – first signs of the King’s insanity – Fox & the others supported the Prince
of Wales, hoping that George would die – but he didn’t…
1789 – the French Revolution broke out; Pitt wanted to stay neutral; Fox wanted
to break Pitt’s monopoly
The Revolution was frightening – the nobility stripped of power, etc
Philosophers (Voltaire, Rousseau, Diderot) – also very influential
The winter of 1788 – very severe, famine → 14 July 1789 – the Bastille fell –
Pitt thought that they would create an English-style constitutional monarchy. In
England, they were not afraid. It was the centenary of the publication of the Bill
of Rights – they thought this was similar to the Glorious Revolution. Burke was
pessimistic – he wanted intervention – he had a debate with Fox, and broke from
the Whig party.
Summer 1792 – news of mass murders of the aristocracy spread – bloody
dictatorship.
British radicals kept in touch with the French Jacobins (Jacobine Club: 1790-
94).
January 1793 - The French announced the annexation of the Austrian
Netherlands
→ 1 February 1793 – declared war on Holland and Britain – violated the
neutrality of the English.
CHAPTER FORTY-ONE (1793-1799)
1793 – Napoleon Bonaparte appears at the siege of Toulon
The First Coalition is set up: Britain, Holland, Spain, Austria, Prussia - later
the Prussians declared neutrality; the Austrians fought in Poland; the Spanish
deserted the Coalition;

England: stern measures were introduced – eg. Habeas Corpus Act suspended
- Ireland was on the verge of rebellion – they got the voting right, but no right to
become MPs
- the British Royal Navy mutinied twice: April 1797 – Channel Fleet, Spithead;
North Sea Fleet, at the Nore – they blockaded the Thames. They demanded
higher wages, payment during illness, etc. Most of their demands were fulfilled.
- then the Nore mutineers won the Battle of Camperdown – stopped the Dutch
invasion
- the Bank of England run into trouble – it suspended payments
- Pitt wanted to keep the map of Europe unchanged – but the French were
triumphant in Northern Italy, Austria, Belgium; then Napoleon decided to attack
Egypt (& not Britain).

Horatio Nelson – born in Norfolk, 1758 – joined his uncle’s ship at the age of
12 – by 1787, he commanded 4 ships; but then got unemployed. In 1793 the
Admiralty called him back – he lost his right eye’s sight – in 1797 became rear
admiral – soon he lost his right arm.
1 August 1798 – Aboukir Bay (Alexandria) – he attacked the French fleet, led
by Admiral Brueys – only 2 ships and 2 frigates escaped of Napoleon’s fleet.
The French could not build a communications line between France and Asia; the
Royal Navy could stay in Malta.
June 1800 – Napoleon beat the Austrians at Marengo, Piedmont.

The English had to raise money – Pitt proposed the introduction of the first
graduated income tax on 3 December 1798 – those whose income is above £60
a year have to contribute 10%.
National Debt: £19 million at the beginning of the century → £500 million at the
end of it.

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CHAPTER FORTY-TWO (1800-1805)
Ireland: 1800 – Act of Union with Ireland
The Protestants founded the Orange Society (Ulster); Society of United
Irishmen (South). Wolfe Tone organized a rebellion – he was captured and
sentenced to death (→ suicide).
Pitt wanted to unify the two kingdoms: but the emancipation of the Catholic
Irish was necessary for this. However, the King couldn’t consent to this.

History of Ireland: 1155 – Henry II → John: Lord of Ireland; 16th century:

England controlled a small area around Dublin (the Pale) → Henry VIII took
the title King of Ireland.
End of the 15th century: some kind of English rule established; 1641 – rebellion
→ Cromwell
made order → 1654 Act for the Settlement of Ireland – 2/3 of landed property
was given to the Protestants; → Revolution of 1688: James II escaped to
Ireland; William of Orange defeated him at the Battle of the Boyne. 1707 –
union of Scotland and England; the Irish House of Commons would have agreed
to Irish-English unification; 1770s-80s: political, economic stability – demand
for independence (Protestant idea! the Catholics had hardly any rights); 1782 –
new Constitution – but the King could veto anything;
1 January 1801 – the Act of Union with Ireland became a law:
“...to unite the two Kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland into one Kingdom...’
– problematic part: ’...the Churches of England and Ireland... be united into one
Protestant Episcopal Church, to be called The United Church of England and
Ireland, and that the doctrine, worship, discipline and government... shall
remain... as the same are now by law established for the Church of England... &
taken to be an essential and fundamental part of the Union...”
- but the Article for Catholic emancipation was missing – the Catholics were
alienated.
→ in the previous years, there had been a decline in Catholicism in Britain; they
weren’t especially concerned with the emancipation
William Pitt resigned as Prime Minister – he was 42
The Act of Union was carried through the Irish Parliament, against vehement
opposition.

2 April 1801 – the Battle of Copenhagen took place. The Danes controlled the
entrance / exit to the Baltic – but they declared armed neutrality. Admiral Sir
Hyde Parker wanted the Fleet to blocade the Baltic – but Nelson persuaded
him to attack the enemy.
The battle started → overwhelming firepower from the Danish positions →
Admiral Parker ordered Signal Number 39: ’Discontinue Action’. Nelson raised
his spyglass to his right eye: „I have a right eye to be blind some time. I really
do not see the signal.”(’to turn a blind eye)
→ they were fighting for a standstill – nearly 2000 were killed and maimed
→ it stopped the French from getting the Danish fleet on their side
→ formal peace could not be achieved

’Government of National Unity’ followed Pitt, led by Henry Addington (not a

great inspiration in politics...) - how to bring the war to an end split the Cabinet.
Henry Dundas (Pitt’s friend) maintained that the Bourbons don’t necessarily
have to be restored.
Dundas (now Viscount Melville): the role of the PM had never been politically
defined – he sent a letter to Addington with a definition; also, he wanted Pitt
back in the Cabinet; and make Lord Chatham (Pitt’s eldest brother) the
figurehead PM).

21 March 1802 – Treaty of Amiens (France controlled the land and Britain the
seas; in the document, the English king was not described as King of France...) –
pause in the fighting. But in May 1803 the war was renewed. About 10,000
British ’tourists’ were interned, accused of spying. 1804 – Napoleon was
crowned Emperor of the French.
26 April – Addington resigned – the king called Pitt back; Pitt wanted Fox in
the Cabinet, to create an all-Party Government; the King refused it – Pitt
respected his wishes, and returned.
1805 - Napoleon intended to invade Southern England – collected his forces at
Boulogne, to bring 200,000 men across the Channel. Meanwhile Nelson was in
the Mediterranean (in search of the fleet of Villeneuve). On 23 July he sailed
for England. 15 Sept – he sailed south from Portsmouth. 21 Oct – the Spanish &
French arrived. This was the first (and last) time that Nelson saw the enemy.
Nelson’s Victory attacked Villeneuve’s flagship. Nelson was shot in the shoulder
– his backbone was broken. 18 French ships surrendered, the rest were in full
retreat. Great victory → Nelson died, he became a great national hero. The war
continued.

CHAPTER FORTY-THREE (1806-1808)

Napoleon’s invasion plan had to be abandoned.
August 1805 – the Boulogne camp broke up, the French marched to the Danube
→ Battle of the Emperors, Austerlitz – Russia and Austria were broken

- Dundas was impeached for maladministration – he was most probably ’guilty’

of at most negligence; the Foxites fuelled the charges against him. Pitt wept
openly. By then, he was terribly ill, dying of cancer. He was just 46. Fox died in
the same year, in 1806.
- Melville’s letter to his son: party unity is important, but a man must not make
wrong decisions under the guise of unity. He writes about the Regency Crisis,
too.

55
George III had to choose a new administration: asked William Wyndham, Lord
Grenville to form a Government; he was Pitt’s cousin, and the ally of Charles
James Fox.
Fox was Charles II’s great-great-grandson (Stuart origins – his Christian names
indicate it!) – he was an extraordinary figure (rebel, gambler, supporter of the
French Revolution, leader of the movement to have the insane King replaced by
the Prince of Wales; he was the first Foreign Secretary).

By 1807 Napoleon was at the height of his powers – divided Europe with the
Tsar of Russia.
- England: unfruitful military expeditions – temporary occupation of Buenos
Aires.
1806-07: Ministry of ’All the Talents’ under Lord Grenville – ’talent’ = Whigs
– hopes of Parliamentary Reform;
→ 1807 - Slave Trade Act became a law – slavery was abolished in 1833
→ attempt to return to the matter of Catholic emancipation – the Ministry fell.
New PM: Duke of Portland; 4 talented ministers.

1808 – the Peninsular War (Iberian Peninsula) – Napoleon blockaded England,

the weak link was the Peninsula of Spain. Joseph Bonaparte, Napoleon’s
brother was put on the Spanish throne – the Spanish fought little wars against
him (guerilla).
Sir Arthur Wellesley (Wellington) was sent to Portugal to beat Marshal Junot,
sent there by the French → won the Battle of Vimiero, 1808 → Convention of
Cintra – scandalous treaty.
Napoleon moved to Spain with 250,000 troops – Sir John Moore was the new
British leader.
Christmas, 1808 – the British had to retreat. 16 Jan 1809 – Battle of Corunna –
Moore died.

London: Mrs Anne Clarke published allegations of corruption in army

administration – directly implicated the Duke of York (the King’s son) – he was
forced to resign as Commander in Chief – it allowed the Opposition to revive
other charges of corruption.
Curwen, an MP proposed a Bill to stop the sale of parliamentary seats →
Curwen’s Act.

CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR (1809-1819)

Sir Arthur Wellesley – son of an Irish peer, a Tory MP. 1809 → Viscount
Wellington.
1814 → Duke of Wellington.
There was a disastrous expedition near Antwerp – the British were destroyed by
malaria.
George Canning, the Foreign Secretary wanted to replace the PM Portland
with the Earl of Chatham.
- the British public wanted French blood
- in London, the Government and the Court were forced to address George III’s
illness (he became insane)
- in 1810 Prince George became Regent
- Perceval – the only Prime minister to be assassinated
- new Prime Minister – Lord Liverpool
- War of 1812 – war with the United States: reasons: the Royal Navy seized
American ships trying to run the blockade against Napoleon + the British
presence in Canada still annoyed the Americans
- 1812 – Bonaparte marched for Moscow – then fled
- 1814 – Napoleon abdicated and went to Elba
- 1815 – Napoleon sailed for France
- the Allies decided the time had come to destroy Napoleon
- 1815 – The Battle of Waterloo – Wellington had 68,000 troops; Napoleon
72,000
Blücher arrived with a further 45,000 troops to support Wellington
- Napoleon escaped to Paris
- the treaties drawn up in 1815 were the last great European settlements until
1919-1920

57