A child's history of England
Note: This is a child's history of England, from Roman times to the present day, aimed at young children just starting to study history. As such, it greatly simplifies the events portrayed.
Ancient Britons and Romans
Before the English came to this country the people living here were the Celts and the Picts (which means painted people). They are sometimes called the ancient britons. They were formed into separate tribes and worshipped their own gods.
The mighty empire of Rome (the people we now call Italians) invaded Britain in the year 43 AD (that is 43 years after the birth of Christ). It took many years for their legions (or regiments) to conquer the country and this led to revolts like the one led by the British queen, Boadicea. (You can still see a statue of her riding her chariot on Westminster Bridge.) The Romans were never able to settle in Scotland where the Picts lived, so the Roman emperor, Hadrian, built a wall from the east coast to the west to keep them out. This is called Hadrian's wall.
At first the Romans worshipped gods like Mars and Jove and persecuted the Christians. Later on christianity became the religion of the Romans.
While the Romans were here the country became wealthy and peaceful. The rich people, Romans and Celts alike, lived in big farm houses called villas. The straight Roman roads can still be seen all over the country.
Latin was the Roman language. The English way of saying the latin word for castle is 'chester'; and any town with chester in its name is likely to have been a Roman town.
In the middle of the fifth century after Christ (AD) fierce tribes like the Huns and the Goths began to invade Italy and the legions were gradually called back to Rome. The Romans had been here 400 years. So great was the loss of Roman civilisation that the times which followed have been called the dark ages.
In these times learning was kept alive only by the Christian monks who copied out by hand the books of the Romans and Greeks.
The coming of the English
With the Roman armies gone England was defenceless before the invaders from northern europe, people like the angles and the Saxons. More and more of them came over and settled in the north-east and East Anglia (which is named after them). The Saxons gave their name to Sussex (meaning the south Saxons) and Essex (the east Saxons). Kent was occupied by people called the Jutes. Some of the Celtish people were driven to the west where they came to be called the Welsh and to the north where they mixed with the Scots. Even now most place names in the south and east of England are Anglo-Saxon, while those of the west and north are Celtic.
It was during this time that king Arthur may have lived, bravely trying to hold back the foreign invaders.
In the end the angles and Saxons settled here and became farmers. They formed separate kingdoms named Mercia, Wessex, Essex, Sussex, East Anglia and Northumbria, which fought continuously with one another.
The Anglo-Saxons had their own gods like Thor and Woden who gave their names to the days of the week (Thursday and Wednesday). It was only after Christian missionaries, like Saint Augustine, arrived from europe that the country became Christian again.
The sea wolves
Three hundred years after the Anglo-Saxons started to arrive another invader appeared, the norsemen or vikings, who probably came from what we now call Denmark. At first the Danes simply raided the villages around the coast, robbing and killing, but soon after they too began to settle here.
The king of Wessex at this time was a wise and brave man called Alfred. (He taught himself to read, which was unusual then.) There is a story that while he was hiding from the Danes in disguise he burnt the cakes in a peasant's cottage. After the Danes were beaten at a great battle they agreed to give up war. They were given the north and east of England. (This was called the Danelaw and the boundary used to run through Olney.) In return Guthrum, their leader, agreed to become a Christian.
Danes started arriving again two centuries later, but by then they were a much less barbarous people. Canute was the first norseman to be king of England. Once in order to show his courtiers that he was not all powerful Canute sat on the beach and ordered the tide not to come in; of course it did, which was what he was trying to show them.
England conquered
In the year 1066 William, a Norman duke landed at Hastings on the south coast with his army to claim the English throne. The Normans, though they lived in France, were what we call Vikings. The Danish king Harold had only just beaten off an attack by the danes, William's allies, in the north of England and his troops were tired after the long march south. After fierce fighting Harold was killed at the town now called Battle. The Normans went on to conquer the rest of the country. For this William is known as William the Conqueror.
William built the Tower of London to defend his conquest as well as castles all over the country. He gave his barons land in return for their support. The barons in turn let some of their land to the lesser lords and knights in exchange for a promise to provide troops and fight for the king in time of war. This is called the feudal system. In order to raise money the king made the the people pay taxes. To find out how much people could pay William had a survey made of all the land in England, The results were written down in a book called the Domesday (or judgement day) Book. The king's favourite pleasure was hunting deer. For this purpose he had whole villages destroyed to create forests like the New Forest in Hampshire. People caught poaching deer were punished severely.
Although William the Conqueror was from France and brought French soldiers and nobles with him, their children and their children's children gradually came to think of themselves as English. However, the French language continued to be used at court, in the law and in books for hundreds of years before English pushed it aside.
The middle ages
After the norman invasion England settled down to a way of life which changed little for hundreds of years. The ordinary people were very poor and were not even allowed to leave their village without their lord's permission. Each lord had his own court where disputes were tried, but people came to prefer the king's courts because these were fairer and could do more to help them. This was the beginning of what we call the common law.
In those times everyone belonged to the catholic church. Its priests and monks were almost the only people who could read and write. Some of them became rich and powerful as bishops and advisors to the king.
When king John fell out with his barons in 1215 they forced him to sign a declaration of rights called the Magna Carta (the great charter). Fifty years later the first parliament was called as a way of persuading the lords to provide the king with money. In return for this he had to give parliament a say in how the country should be governed. In those days it was only the rich and powerful who were represented in parliament.
This was the time of chivalry when the young sons of lords were sent away from home to the king's court to train as knights. Many knights made the journey to the Middle East where, with soldiers from other countries, they tried to win back the Holy Land (what we now call Israel: the country where Christ lived). To do this they had to fight the turks, or saracens as they called them. These wars were called the crusades. In one of them Richard the Lionheart (brother of king John) was captured and imprisoned in a castle. The story is that he was discovered there by his troubadour (or singer) Blondin, and a ransom was paid in order to release him.
The normans fought a series of wars to extend and, later, to protect their land in France. Although at first winning battles like Crecy and Agincourt (at which the English had the advantage of the long bow) they were eventually driven out of all but a small part of France by an army inspired by a young girl, Joan of Arc. These on and off battles between England and France are called the hundred years war.
In England, without proper drains and with little medical knowledge, illness was common. In 1348 in a terrible illness known as the black death more than one person in three died. The poor people were very unhappy. In 1381 a large number of them marched in protest from Kent to London. This is known as the peasants' revolt. It collapsed when the peasants' leader, Wat Tyler, was killed by the mayor of London.
For half a century the kings of England had been drawn from the house (or family) of Lancaster, but after Richard, duke of York, became king there were constant fights between the houses of Lancaster and York. These are called the wars of the roses because Lancaster was known by the symbol of a red rose and York by a white one. The wars ended when a welshman, Henry Tudor, defeated king Richard the Third at the battle of Bosworth field (near Market Harborough) in 1485. Henry then became Henry the Seventh, the first of king from the house of Tudor.
The Tudors
When Henry the Seventh died his son became king Henry the Eighth. He married Katherine of Aragon. As she could not bear him a son Henry wanted to divorce her and marry someone else. Finding that the church would not allow him to do this, Henry took control of the church. (Even nowadays the queen is head of the Church of England). All in all, Henry had six wives, of which he executed two and divorced two. He only had one son who died young.
Henry used his disagreement with the church as an excuse for seizing the lands and property of the monks. This is called the dissolution of the monasteries. Henry's firm rule made it clear that the king was not just the chief lord, but head of the whole nation. To keep his power he had many people executed and imprisoned.
After Henry's death his daughter, Mary, became queen. She was a Roman Catholic (that is a christian who followed the pope in Rome.) Mary killed or persecuted anyone who did not conform to her religion; for this she was called Bloody Mary by the protestants (or non-catholic christians).
After Mary's death Elizabeth, another daughter of Henry the Eighth, became queen. Elizabeth was a protestant and this time it was the turn of the catholics to be persecuted. Like her father, Elizabeth was strong minded and clever. She never married, although she had her favourites at court, like the earls of Essex and Leicester. During her reign people like Sir Walter Raleigh sailed out from England to open up the newly discovered continent of America and poets like Shakespeare and Marlowe wrote their plays.
Rivalry between protestant England and catholic Spain grew so great that in 1588 king Philip of Spain (who had been married to Bloody Mary) sent an armada of ships to attack this country. They were beaten off by an English fleet under admirals Howard and Drake and what was left of the Spanish ships was finished off in a terrible storm. There were a number of catholic plots to kill the queen, some of them involving another Mary, Elizabeth's cousin and queen of the Scots. After keeping her in prison for many years Elizabeth had Mary executed when she kept plotting against her.
When Elizabeth died king James the Sixth of Scotland became king James the First of England as well. The religious troubles went on. The gunpowder plot was an attempt by a group of catholics led by Guy Fawkes to blow up the houses of parliament. They were caught just in time and their plot is still remembered every year on bonfire night.
The civil wars
Charles Stuart became king in 1625. A brave, proud but foolish man, he quickly fell out with parliament who refused to agree to the taxes he demanded. When he tried to govern the country without them parliament took up arms against the king. The whole of England soon became drawn into a terrible civil war in which the supporters of the king (the cavaliers) were opposed by the supporters of parliament (the roundheads). Parliament was also supported by the puritans. They were people who thought that the church was following bad ways. Even today you can still churches with missing statues which were destroyed by puritans who saw them as “idols”.
Oliver Cromwell was one of parliament's best generals. It was only after he had built a new and stronger army (the new model army) that the king's forces were defeated at the battle of Marston Moor. The king escaped and had to be defeated once again when he was captured by the Scots. A year later parliament tried and executed the king. Even that was not the end. A year after the execution of the king his son, also called Charles, tried to recover the throne. He too was defeated at the battle of Worcester and only escaped by hiding in an oak tree. Some public houses are still called The King's Oak after this.
The restoration
For the next four years Cromwell was busy putting down rebellions among the Irish and the Scots which he did with so much savagery that it is still remembered today in Ireland. When he came back to England he was made lord protector and governed the country wisely but firmly for the next five years. This period is called the commonwealth. Cromwell's son, Robert, was nowhere as able as his father and in 1660 the dead king's son came back to England to be crowned Charles the Second. This is called the restoration because the king was restored to the throne.
Two disasters occurred at the beginning of Charles' reign; in 1666 a terrible illness called the plague caused millions of deaths and the following year much of London was destroyed when fire swept through its wooden buildings. Curiously enough, the fire started at Pudding Lane and finished at Pie Corner.
Charles the second was sufficiently clever (or lazy) not to fall out with parliament. The same could not be said of his brother who became king on his death.
The glorious revolution
James the Second was a Roman catholic and when the Scots (who were not catholic) rebelled he had the rebellion put down harshly. Dislike of king James led another James, duke of Monmouth, to land with a small army at Lyme Regis in the west country in 1685. His attempt to become king ended when he was defeated at the battle of Sedgemoor. He was executed and his followers were punished by the cruel Judge Jeffrey at what is called the bloody assize. (An assize is a sitting of a court.)
In the end parliament became so fed up with king James that a group of people plotted to replace the king. William of Orange was a protestant duke from Holland. He landed at Torbay in 1688 with a big fleet and he and his wife Mary were crowned king and queen. This is known as the glorious revolution because it came about without bloodshed. In the following year William and Mary promised in a document called the bill of rights to govern the country fairly.
Queen Anne was the last of the Stuart monarchs. She reigned for 42 years. At first she was greatly influenced by her friend, John, duke of Marlborough, and his wife, Sarah. The duke of Marlborough commanded the British armies which won a series of battles against the French. They ended with the battle of Blenheim in 1704. In 1707 England and Scotland came together to form Great Britain and share the same parliament. This is called the act of union. (The scots had briefly been conquered by the English before, but had won their independence at the battle of Bannockburn in 1314.)
The German Georges
Queen Anne died without children and parliament had to find a new king. They chose a German descendant of James the First who became George the First of England. He was the first of the Hanoverian kings because his family name was Hanover. George did not speak English and his first (or prime) minister, Walpole, became very powerful. When the king became unwell the prime minister was recognized as head of the government and that is how it has been ever since. At that time politicians were divided into those who supported the king (the whigs) and those who did not (the tories).
People who thought that old king James should not have been put off the throne were called jacobites (which means supporters of James). In 1745 James' grandson, Bonny Prince Charlie, raised his flag in Scotland where he was supported by the Scottish clans (or tribes). He won a victory over the English at Prestonpans but was eventually defeated at the battle of Culloden after which he escaped “over the seas to Skye”.
It was during this time that Britain began gathering her overseas territories. The seven years war with France resulted in the conquest of India by general Clive and the capture of Quebec in what is now Canada by General Wolfe. Many Englishmen became rich trading abroad, some by selling black Africans as slaves in the West Indies.
The only setback was in 1776 when the American colonies rebelled under their leader, George Washington. After defeating a British army in the war of independence the former colonies declared themselves a separate country called the United States of America.
After a violent revolution in France in 1789 Napoleon, a young artillery officer, became emperor of the French. In a series of brilliant battles he conquered most of western europe but had to turn back outside Moscow, the capital of Russia. His navy was defeated in 1812 by a British fleet under the command of admiral Nelson at the battle of Trafalgar. Nelson did not live to enjoy his victory because he was killed on the deck of his flagship, the Victory. (Nelson was the sailor who at another battle put a telescope to his blind eye and pretended not to see his admiral's order to withdraw.) Napoleon was finally defeated at the battle of Waterloo in 1815 by a combined British and German army under command of the duke of Wellington. Napoleon was banished to the island of St Helena where he died.
The industrial revolution
New inventions meant that goods could be made more cheaply in factories than in people's homes. This is called the industrial revolution and England was the first country to go through it in the eighteenth century. New farm machinery allowed more crops to be grown on the land. The first railway engine called the Rocket was built by George Stephenson in 1829. After that the country quickly became covered by railway lines which, along with McAdam's new roads and the new steamships, made the country richer .
Not everyone was rich. The farm workers were badly paid and many went into the towns in search of jobs. Soldiers coming home from the wars had no jobs and a few of them became highwaymen robbing people on lonely roads. People with money or land to lose were afraid that the violent revolution which had happened in France would be copied here. When in 1819 a large crowd assembled in St Peter's Fields in Manchester soldiers were used to break it up and some people were killed. This is called Peterloo after the name of Wellington's battle. Trade unions were put down by law and when a few Dorset labourers were caught swearing bloodthirsty oaths to support each other they were deported to Australia. They are called the Tolpuddle martyrs.
In many places members of parliament were elected by only a handful of voters and it was commonplace for people to bribe their way into parliament. The great reform act of 1832 allowed men other than the rich to vote, but it was not until a century later that all women got the vote. Gradual improvements like this prevented the sort of bloody revolutions which happened in much of europe in 1848.
Queen Victoria
An 18 year old girl called Victoria became queen in 1837. During the 64 years she reigned England was at its most powerful. Disraeli, one of her prime ministers, bought the Suez canal for England. South Africa was seized from the boers and Victoria was crowned empress of India. Although our army had to fight many small wars around the the world europe was at peace and England, like all the other great trading nations, was growing richer.
The industrial revolution had left England with a large working class packed into overcrowded and often insanitary houses. Acts of parliament were passed in order to make the cities healthier and the factories safer. Local councils were set up to run public services like schools, police and drains. Great scientific advances were made, such as the electric light and the discovery of a cheap way to make steel.
Two world wars
Almost a century of peace in europe came to an end when Germany invaded France in 1914 beginning what is known as the great war. No one believed that the war would last more than a few months. In fact it lasted four years and claimed millions of lives. This was because soldiers could not advance more than a few hundred yards in the face of machine guns and barbed wire. It was only after the Americans entered the war that there was an agreement (or armistice) to stop fighting. We still remember the dead of this and other wars on armistice day.
The terms of the armistice were so harsh on Germany that after a few years it became wretchedly poor. Adolf Hitler and his nazi party (pronounced nartsy) came to power by telling the Germans that all their troubles were to be blamed on the rich and the jews. He built up a big army and began taking over the other countries of europe by force. This was the beginning of the second world war. England, tired of war, had let her army run down and was not in a position to challenge him. The league of nations, which had been set up after the great war in order to keep the peace, proved useless. Eventually when Germany invaded Poland Britain declared war. France was quickly overrun by the German army and the small British expeditionary force only just managed to escape from the Belgian port of Dunkirk. The German attempt to defeat the Royal Air Force in the battle of Britain was unsuccessful because of the skill of our pilots and because of an invention called radar developed before the war.
During this time Britain under its prime minister, Winston Churchill, had stood alone against Germany. Eventually America came into the war after Japan (Germany's ally) attacked the American fleet when they lay at anchor at a place called Pearl Harbour.
Hitler, who by now had conquered most of western europe, made the same mistake as Napoleon and attacked Russia. Once again, Russia proved to be too big to conquer easily and Hitler's armies, like Napoleon's, got bogged down in the severe Russian winter. Eventually the allies (as those who fought against Hitler were called) landed a large army in France and fought their way to Berlin, after which the Germans surrendered. Made poor by war, Britain had to abandon its overseas empire. Many of the citizens of the former colonies emigrated to England in search of a better life resulting in the largest influx of other races into this country since the vikings.
Not only Britain but all the countries of western europe were exhausted and their factories in ruins. It was only by the generosity of America that enough money was made available to re-build. This was called the Marshall plan. While Germany and Japan concentrated on rebuilding their factories Britain chose to use its wealth in a brave attempt to stamp out poverty. This was called the welfare state. Germany and Japan are now among the richest nations.
Shortly after the second world war Germany and its old rival, France, determined to put an end to further wars, set up a common market, that is an arrangement under which goods can be traded freely between countries. Britain came into the common market unwillingly and late. Nowadays it is called the European Community and there is much discussion over whether it should be turned into a political union (or federation).
After the second world war the united nations (or UN) was set up to keep world peace. It was to prove nearly as ineffective as the league of nations. Communist Russia fell out with the democracies of the west and there was a real fear that a third world war might break out with atomic weapons being used. This cold war, as it was called, came to an end in 1990 when the communist system in Russia collapsed from its own inefficiency.
Today's problems
Fear of the atomic bomb kept the peace in europe from the end of the second world war until the collapse of communism. Unfortunately, it did not prevent a lot of smaller wars in places like Korea, Malaysia, the Falkland islands and the Persian Gulf, in all of which British soldiers have had to fight. Even more difficult to deal with have been the small terrorist movements which have sprung up all over the world, even in the United Kingdom.
Ireland had long been ruled by Britain, but in 1921 after three years of rebellion the south of the island became a separate country. Only the six counties of the north (called Ulster) remained in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The people of the south are mostly catholics, while just over half of the people of the north are protestant. The protestant majority in the north did not always treat the catholics well and a violent revolutionary group called the Irish republican army (or IRA) fought a terrorist campaign to get the British out of Ulster. The IRA recently called a halt to violence on the understanding that there would be changes. This is called the Good Friday agreement.
The same problems have not arisen in Scotland which has been given its own Parliament and can run many of its own affairs.
Recently even the position of the queen and the royal family has been called into question.
History then is still going on. We forget at our peril what happened in the past.
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