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England's History : 1066 - 1713

The Middle Ages 1066 - 1485

The defeat of King Harold Godwinson at the Battle of Hastings in 1066 at the hands of William of Normandy, later styled William I of England and the subsequent Norman takeover of Saxon England led to a sea-change in the history of the small, isolated, island state. William ordered the compilation of the Domesday Book, a survey of the entire population and their lands and property for tax purposes.

The English Middle Ages were to be characterised by civil war, international war, occasional insurrection, and widespread political intrigue amongst the aristocratic and monarchic elite.

In 1215 following disagreements with his barons King John signed the Magna Carta (Latin for "Great Charter"), a charter which limited the power of the monarchy and guaranteed certain basic rights.

The Black Death, an epidemic of bubonic plague that spread over the whole of Europe, arrived in England in 1349 and killed perhaps up to a third of the population.

International excursions were invariably against domestic neighbours: the Welsh, Irish, Cornish, Scots and the French, with the principal notable battles being the Battle of Crécy and the Battle of Agincourt. In addition to this, the final defeat of the uprising led by the Welsh prince, Owen Glendower, in 1412 by Prince Henry (later to become Henry V) represents the last major armed attempt by the Welsh to throw off English rule.

Tudor England 1485 - 1603

The Tudor period began with the victory of Henry VII over Richard III at the battle of Bosworth Field (which ended the War of the Roses).

Henry VII was succeeded by his son Henry VIII in 1509. Henry VIII was to become one of the most influential and famous English monarchs.

King Henry VIII split with the Roman Catholic Church over a question of his divorce from Catherine of Aragon. Though his religious position was not at all Protestant, the resultant schism ultimately led to England distancing itself almost entirely from Rome. A notable casualty of the schism was Henry's chancellor, Sir Thomas More (executed for opposing Henry's divorce).

There followed a period of great religious and political upheaval, which led to the Reformation, the royal expropriation of the monasteries and much of the wealth of the church. The Dissolution of the Monasteries had the effect of giving many of the lower classes (the gentry) a vested interest in the Reformation continuing, for to halt it would be to revive Monasticism and restore lands which were gifted to them during the Dissolution.

Henry was eventually to marry six times.

Henry's daughter Elizabeth followed her siblings Edward and Mary to the throne in 1588. The religious issue which had divided the country since Henry VIII was in a way put to rest by the Elizabethan Religious Settlement, which created the Church of England in much the same form we see it today. Much of Elizabeth's success was in balancing the interests of the Puritans (extreme Protestants) and "die-hard" Catholics. She managed to offend neither to a large extent, although she clamped down on Catholics towards the end of her reign as war with Catholic Spain loomed.

One of the most famous events in English martial history occurred in 1588 when the Spanish Armada was repelled by Sir Francis Drake, but the war that followed was very costly for England and only ended after Elizabeth's death. Elizabeth's government did much to consolidate the work begun under Thomas Cromwell in the reign of Henry VIII, that is in expanding the role of the government and in effecting common law and administration throughout the realm of England.

The Early Stuart Era 1603 - 1642

The Stuart period began with James VI of Scotland took the English throne as James I. James believed in the absolute power of the monarchy and came into conflict with Parliament.

A number of assassination attempts were made on the Protestant King James I, notably the Main Plot and Bye Plots of 1603, and most famously, on 5th November 1605, the Gunpowder Plot, by a group of Catholic conspirators, led by Guy Fawkes, which was stoked up and served as further fuel for antipathy in England to the Catholic faith.

The English Civil War 1642 - 1649

The First English Civil War broke out in 1642, largely as a result of an ongoing series of conflicts between the then King, Charles I, and Parliament. The defeat of the Royalist army by the New Model Army of Parliament at the Battle of Naseby in June 1645 effectively destroyed the King's armies. The King fled to Scotland but was handed over to the English Parliament for money by the Scots. He escaped and the Second English Civil War began, although it was to be only a short conflict, with Parliament quickly securing the country. The capture and subsequent trial of Charles I led to his execution by beheading in January 1649 at Whitehall Gate in London.

The English Republic 1649 - 1660

The monarchy was abolished and Oliver Cromwell became the Lord Protector. After he died, his son Richard Cromwell acceeded him as Lord Protector, but soon abdicated. The monarchy was restored in 1660, after England entered a period of anarchy, with King Charles II returning to London.

The Late Stuart Era 1660 - 1713

In 1664/65 England was swept by a visitation of the Great Plague, and then, in 1666, London, the timbered capital city of England, was swept by the Great Fire of London, which raged for 5 days, destroying approximately 15,000 buildings.

In 1689, the Dutch Protestant William of Orange, William III replaced the Catholic King James II. This became known as the Glorious Revolution or 'Bloodless Revolution'. However, in Scotland and Ireland, Catholics loyal to James II were not so content, and a series of bloody uprisings resulted. These Jacobite Rebellions continued until the mid-18th century.

The union of Scotland with England in the Act of Union 1707, saw Scotland 'united' with England and Wales (Wales had already been assimilated in the Act of Union 1536 by Henry VIII).

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
It uses material from the Wikipedia article "History of England".