History of England

The History of Britain covers the history of Great Britain and Ireland (before the creation of an independent Eire) from prehistoric times to the present.

Introduction

The main body of this article traces some of the developments that influenced the evolution of the British constitution. It does so mainly by reviewing the broad outcomes of sequences of events, often without giving any attention to individual events. The timelines subpage takes a different approach by listing those events that are conventionally considered most influential. Readers who want to examine individual events in more detail are invited to make use of the links on that subpage as well as those on the present page.

Prehistory

The oldest human remains that have been found in Britain have been carbon-dated as being up to 10,000 years old, and the DNA of a skeleton found in a Cheddar cave has been found to be a close match of a modern dweller in the same area. Since the separation of Britain from the continental landmass did not occur until about 6000 BCE , it would be wrong to refer to "Cheddar Man" as British, but the survival of his DNA, despite the subsequent intrusions of conquerors and migrants has been cited in defence of the relevance of ancient history to current affairs.

The main evidence of prehistoric communal activity concerns the "Beaker People" of the 2nd and 3rd centuries BCE - named after their distinctive ware pottery. The Beaker People kept livestock and cultivated flax and cereals, used woven fabrics and practiced archery. The wide diffusion of the pottery discoveries suggests that they were a mobile and energetic people, and their grave goods indicate fairly extensive trading activities.. However, the scores of megaliths that are to be found scattered throughout Britain and Ireland provide the most visible evidence of the achievements of that period. The evidence of Stonehenge suggests that some of the inhabitants were accomplished civil engineers, and that some had acquired some knowledge of astronomy. The technology that they used is not known - although Bernard Cornwell has provided a plausible fictional account of how they might have solved the problem,

The Celts (c600 BCE - 49 CE)

The history of Celtic people in Britain is limited by a lack of textual evidence about the period, but it is clear from the archeological evidence that they, too were far from primitive. "Ogham inscriptions" on surviving stone artifacts prove that they used an alphabetic language that modern linguists have been able to decipher, and historians tend to conclude that a Celtic aversion to textual recording must have been the reason for the lack of other textual evidence. The Celts are known to have been migrants from Northern Europe because of their common cultural characteristics, including related languages and similar artifacts. They were all users of metal ploughs and various forms of wheeled transport . Despite the existence of those common cultural characteristics, there is no evidence to suggest that there was any coordination of their activities, or that any Celt thought of himself as a member of any organisation larger than his own tribe . However, the two dozen or so tribes that settled in Britain and Ireland have been categorised into two linguistic groupings - the "Goidelic" group including Irish, Manx and Scottish; and the "Brythonic" group including Breton, Welsh and Cornish - or, more precisely, those were the languages into which they gradually evolved. All of those languages have survived of have been revived, and they constitute one category of the modern legacy from the Celtic migration. (The various modern "Celtic Revival" organisations also lay claim to a range of cultural legacies, some of which, such as "Celtic Music" consist of developments occurring long after Celtic Britain gave way to Roman Britain).

The Romans (49-410 CE)

The period of over a thousand years of Celtic domination was succeeded in parts of Britain by a very different period of about four hundred years of Roman occupation. Whereas the people known collectively as Celts consisted of a large number of independent or loosely-associated tribes that occasionally coalesced into somewhat larger groupings, the Romans who invaded Britain were a closely coordinated, centrally-managed occupation force. Whereas the Celtic contribution had been largely genetic and cultural, the Roman contribution was largely technological and political. Although the culture of Rome and ancient Greece was to have a profound influence upon British culture, that did not happen as a result of the Roman occupation. Its major contributions at the time were the result of the occupiers' skills in political administration and civil engineering. The inhabitants of those parts of Britain that came completely under Roman control gained the benefits of living in a province of the Roman empire. Those gains included the establishment and enforcement of a legal system, access to Greek and Roman culture, and the building in stone of villas, towns and roads. All freeborn Britons became Roman citizens, and there was eventually no meaningful distinction between being British and being Roman.

The practice of Christianity in the Roman Empire was a capital offence until the Edict of Milan in 313 CE, but the martyrdom of St Albans is evidence that it was nevertheless practiced in Britain. The recorded attendance of British bishops at the Council of Arles in 314 CE suggests the previous existence of a form of Christian church among the local population, and the adoption of Christianity as the Roman state religion in 391CE must have helped it to spread.

Where there was not complete Roman control, Celtic society survived and developed along different lines. The Romans did not invade Ireland, they abandoned their early attempts to control what is now Scotland, and they achieved only partial control of England north of the river Trent. In Ireland, in particular there was unbroken development, up to the eleventh century invasions of the Vikings and the Normans, and to some extent beyond those events. In Ireland and in Scotland there was a progressive transition from a fragmented tribal structure into larger groupings that were eventual to lead to integrated national political structures.

( more detailed accounts of developments in Ireland and Scotland are available in the articles Ireland, history and Scotland, history)

The Saxons (410-c800 CE)

After the sudden departure of the Romans, England lost nearly all traces of Roman culture. In the course of the following two centuries there was a major decline in the numbers able to read Latin, villas, towns and roads were - with only a few exceptions - allowed to decay, and all stone-working skills were lost. Military and politically control passed eventually to the relatively uncultured Saxons, who first came to England as hired mercenaries and later stayed as conquerors. Total conquest was not immediate, however, but was delayed by successful resistance under Ambrosius and Arthur, as a result of which a decaying form of Roman culture survived in parts of England for nearly two hundred years.

It is not known whether the British/Roman Christians attempted to convert the Saxon invaders after the end of the Roman occupation (the historian Bede said that they did not, but his impartiality has been questioned .). However, it seems safe to assume that Christian churches survived in the regions of Wales and Cornwall that the invaders did not reach, although their existence may have been unknown to the church officials in Rome. The most significant development, however was the establishment of Christianity in Ireland, and the establishment of monasteries there, where they became centres of learning. Missionaries from the Irish monasteries later carried their religious beliefs and their learning to communities in Scotland and Northern England and played a part in the conversion of the English Saxons to Christianity. That process was completed by the mission of Saint Augustine from Rome and the adoption of the Vatican's doctrines by the Saxon Christians.

The Vikings (c800 - 1066)

There followed a period of about two hundred years during which the name "England" was first adopted, and England was first united under a single ruler. It was also a period during which substantial numbers of Scandinavian settlers were added to the mainly Saxon population, and during which Christianity eventually became the officially established religion. A major part in those transitions was played by the "Vikings" who were raiders from a variety of Scandinavian countries, and "Danes", who were settlers from a similar source who were supported by substantial military forces. At the beginning of the period, the invaders were bands of savage pagan marauders, and by its end - when they finally assumed control - they were civilised, mainly Christian, members of an established Scandinavian empire.

The earliest Viking attacks were upon the Irish ports of Dublin and Waterford, which became Viikung settlements, from which the Vikings took part in Irish power-struggles. The invasions ceased with the Viking defeat by High King Brian Boru in 1014, after which they remained as Irish subjects.

Among the Saxon natives of England, the dominant figure in the first half of the period was Alfred, King of Wessex. It was he who united the country's local leaders in combined resistance to the invaders, and who became England's first king. Alfred combined the qualities of scholar, educator, law-maker, administrator, military strategist and Christian leader. He gave England its first code of law, its first navy and its first well-organised army. His military successes enabled him to negotiate a partition of the country with the Danish leader, Guthrum, and to recapture London.

After Alfred's death, his successors continued to gain territory from the Danes but in 1890 they counter-attacked in force, reconquered South East England and eventually the whole country. The dominant figure during that period was Canute, who ruled over an empire that included England, Jutland, Norway, Iceland and Greenland. Danish reign over England ended with his death in 1041.

The Normans (1066 - 1154)

Following the Norman invasion of England, the Normans revolutionised the governance of England mainly by adapting and extending existing institutions. Voluntary agreements under which land tenure was awarded in return for an oath of service to a lord were developed by the Normans into a hierarchical system of compulsory military service , under which the majority of people became serfs, or "villeins", each obliged to serve a lord , who, in turn, was obliged to serve the King by paying taxes and occasionally helping to raise an army. The taxation system was adapted by the introduction of a land tenure basis using survey information recorded in the Domesday book, and by the introduction of systematic enforcement. Edward the Confessor's code of common law was extended by the use of what was to develop into the grand jury system. The concept of the King's peace was extended from its original reference to the protection of the king's house to cover the whole country and symbolised the adoption of crime prevention as a component of government policy. Progress in the development of governance was disrupted by the anarchy resulting from armed combat between claimants to the throne, but was resumed after the agreed succession to the throne by Henry Plantagenet.

Wales was divided into a border region known as "the Welsh Marches" which was under the control of barons who had taken separate oaths of allegiance to King, and a self-governing area which was under the control of native Welsh princes. Although it was nominally part of the kingdom of England, Wales did not become subject to English law and it was able largely to preserve a separate culture and language for several centuries after the Norman invasion.

A volatile relationship developed between Scotland and England. The English position that Scotland had become a part of the Kingdom of England as a result of the Treaty of Abernethy was often a matter of contention between them, but various members of the Scottish royal family attended the English royal court and became familiar with Norman culture and governance. As a result, a Norman-style feudal system was set up in Scotland and Norman noblemen were invited to become part of it. There followed three centuries during which raids, invasions and battles (known as Scotland's Wars of Independence), were interspersed with periods of peaceful trade and the interchange of culture and population.

The Plantagenets (1154 - 1485)

Neither the futile and immensely damaging "100 Years War" over the succession to the throne of France, nor the disruptive but relatively trivial "Wars of the Roses" over the succession to the English throne, had any significant effect in themselves upon the subsequent course of English history, but there were other developments that did. Principal among them were the changes to the constitution and to the mobility of labour, and the conquest of Ireland.

Limited but significant steps toward the creation of a system of representative government were taken during the 13th century. The Magna Carta set up an independent assembly - later to be termed a "parliament" - that purported to serve the interests of the country, with powers of control over the conduct of government, , and its initial membership of 25 barons was broadened by Simon de Monfort's Provisions of Oxford and by the constitution of the "Model Parliament" during the reign of Edward I. By the end of the Plantagenet era, the system had progressed to a stage when parliament contained representatives drawn from all classes of society, had acquired the power to propose legislation and had divided into two houses, with the House of Commons assuming control over taxation.

The Magna Carta also contained a statement of civil rights which is held to be the founding principle of the English legal system, and to be one of the precursors of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

The ending of the system of serfdom under which peasants were forbidden to leave the villages of their parents' birth came gradually to an end, not as a result of promises to abolish it to the rioters of the "Peasants Revolt", nor by any subsequent legislation, but under pressure from popular demand and the disruptions to the labour force caused by the enormous population loss during the "Black Death"

The conquest of Ireland started with an expedition organised by an English baron in collaboration with an exiled Irish king, was acknowledged by the submission of the Irish kings to the lordship of Henry II, and was given further formal expression when Prince John, Lord of Ireland, became King of England.

There continued to be a volatile and often hostile relationship between England and Scotland, aggravated by Scotland's "Auld Alliance" with France.