1. BEFORE ROMANS IBERIAN AND CELT BRITAIN

it was probably just after the glacial epoch that Britain was first inhabited by homo sapiens; it was then still connected to the Continent by the land-bridge; when Britain became an island it was soon a tempting place for invasions having rich soil and moderate climate; iron and other metals, timber, fresh water; the earliest people who came to Britain were Neolithic people (3000-2000 BC), then Megalithic people built great stone circles (which served either as temples or astronomical observatories, or both), - like Stonehenge in Salisbury Plain (built 1800-1400 BC)there pre-Celt inhabitants of the land, dark-haired, who we can call Iberians; most of them remained in remote and hostile regions of Scotland, Wales and Ireland; the Celts, tall men, fair and red-haired, entered Britain mostly in two waves: 800 BC and 600BC; they imposed themselves as aristocracy on previous inhabitants of Britain, and the races mixed; like the Iberians, the Celts did not develop any state organisation, remaining in tribes; we dont know much about their religious beliefs: in spirits, fairies etc.; religion was organised by their priests called the Druids; the descendants of Iberians and Celts now live mostly in Wales, Scotland, Ireland and Cornwall;

2. ROMAN TIMESthe Roman occupation took place between the coming of the Celts and the Saxons (delaying the latter by 200 years); the Celts, later the Saxons and the Danes came to slaughter the inhabitants and settle in their place, but the Romans came to exploit and govern by the right of superior civilisation; the Romans did not leave as much in Britain as they did in the Gaul (France), they did not latinise it;

the first Roman attempt to invade Britain was made by Julius Caesar in 54 BC, but his expedition was no great success; the actual conquest of the island took place under the Emperor Claudius, AD 43, the country was quite easily submitted to Romans, partly because of internal struggles and better organisation of Roman army;the exception to this easy submission was the rising of Boadicea (Boudicca); the Celtic queen, AD 61; according to tradition, 70,000 men were killed in the uprising; she committed suicide (?); now is a symbol, a statue in Londonthe Romans did not bother much to conquer mountainous regions of the country; they were confined to England and Wales;

the Romans improved the country; they built towns (developing London) where they kept garrisons called castra;many Roman garrisons may be recognised by the names: Chester, Manchester, Chichester, Doncaster, Gloucester, Exeter; Roman towns had defensive walls, a forum, baths, market place, temple and theatres; They built defensive walls from sea to sea in the north: Antoninus Wall in Scotland, and Hadrians Wall (partly exists) which runs from Carlisle to Newcastle (built 123 AD);

- the Romans had to leave Britain in AD 410 when Rome was threatened with an invasion of Germanic peoples;

the three things that the Romans left:- the traditional importance of certain new city sites (esp. London founded in a very attractive site on the river Thames)- the Roman roads no one made any more hard roads until the 18th cent.; the roads increased the speed of Saxon, Danish and Norman conquests; aided the unification of England by Saxon and Norman kings; - Welsh ChristianityHowever, the Latin life of the cities, the villas, the arts, the language, the political organisation all that has gone;

3. ANGLO-SAXON INVASION

- the first attacks of Anglo-Saxon raiders (pirates) from the continent began around 250 AD; it started a number of waves of Nordic invasions (people from Scandinavia, present day Denmark and Germany Germanic peoples) that lasted until 1020 AD; - at the beginning the east coast of Great Britain was fortified, even the Romans built a fleet to protect the coast, but soon the situation grew worse, especially after the Roman withdrawal- the Nordic invasions are more important than Roman conquest and even than the later Norman conquest there were few Romans and Norman-French people settled mainly in aristocracy; the Nordic conquest had more serious permanentresults as it was accompanied by a general displacement of Celtic by Nordic people from richest agricultural parts of theisland; - in the first wave there were three main Nordic peoples: - Jutes (northern Denmark) established their kingdom in Kent- Saxons (northern Germany) kingdoms in Sussex, Wessex and Essex

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- Angles (southern Denmark) most numerous landed in East Anglia, kingdoms of Deira, Mercia, Bernicia, Northumbria; (map Trevelyan 41)- about 613 the new country, consisting of many small states (Northumbria was the largest) became to be known as Engle-land or England (because the majority were Angles their dialect gradually became the common language of all people); - the Anglo-Saxons had a different form of government more limited form of despotism, a very primitive form of democracy based on tribal customs tie of kinship between all members of the clan; war leaders became kings; the king had an advisory council Witan and every village a moot meeting place where local affairs were discussed; the law was customary and became known as Common Law- although the Anglo-Saxons used a Runic alphabet, their culture was lower than that of Romanised Britons; an orderly Roman-Celtic world began to fall into chaos in the 4th century AD; life and property became less and less secure- the Anglo-Saxons were bloody-minded pirates rejoicing to destroy the civilisation higher than their own and later attempting to settle on its land themselves;- the early Anglo-Saxons were not city-dwellers: they destroyed the Roman cities and villas instead of living in them; - another general result of this conquest was destroying the peace and unity of Roman province frequent wars within the country- also wars with the Welsh, who were removed from their best lands; - Anglo-Saxons were rural people lived in villages, cultivated the land, fishermen, smiths, weavers, - lived in houses called halls; one room, hearth (fire) in the middle, smoke coming through the hole in the thatched roof;tables, beds, places for domestic animals in the halls; small windows in the upper parts;- heathens names of their gods are registered in English names of the weekdays; fatalists the Fate called Wyrd; melancholic; sad poetry (alliterative) stories of Germanic heroes

- the times of Anglo-Saxon conquest were depicted by Bede: BEDE: commonly known as the Venerable Bede (Czcigodny Beda), (c. 672 735) was a monk at the Northumbrian monastery. He is well known as an author and scholar, whose best-known work is Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum (The Ecclesiastical History of the English People) gained him the title "The father of English History" history from the time of Caesar to the date of its completion (731)

4. CHRISTIANISATION

- after the legalisation of Christian religion in the Roman Empire (Constantine, 313), there was quite a number of Christians in Britain: hermits and missionaries; their names commemorated in many place names (St. Ive, St. Endelion);- when the Anglo-Saxon invasions began, it was for the British Celts not only the problem of national survival, but also a problem of defence of Christianity associated with higher civilisation of Rome;

- the leader of British against the Anglo-Saxon; became the symbol of Christianity, the defender of faith: Artorius calledArthur;Arthur, king of the Britons: important figure in the mythology of Great Britain; the central character in Arthurian legendspresented by Welsh chronicles as victorious leader; the picture of Our Lady on his shield; his victory over the English atBaton Hill (516) stopped the English for about 50 years; - some people believe that the mythical hero Arthur is based on the real war leader (not necessarily a king) of Romano-British origin; - another school of thought believes that Arthur is a half-forgotten Celtic deity devolved into a personage;- Arthur first appears in Welsh literature since 6th cent. - he later appears in medieval romances (starting from AD 1133, Geoffrey of Monmouth produced a manuscript called the Historia Regum Britanniae); renewed interest in the Arthurian Legend in Norman times (possibly anti-Saxon reasons)- in these versions, which gained popularity beginning in the 12th century, Arthur gathered the Knights of the Round Table (Lancelot, Gawain, Galahad, and others). At his court, most often held at Camelot, could sometimes be found the wizard Merlin. Arthur's knights engaged in fabulous quests, famously including one for the Holy Grail. Other stories from the Celtic world came to be associated with Arthur, such as the tale of Tristan and Isolde. In the late prose romances the love affair between Arthur's champion, Lancelot, and the Queen, Guinevere, becomes the central reason for the fall of the Arthurian world;

- Christianity was strange to the Nordic mind: it taught charity, humility, self-discipline, spiritual concern, soul-body distinction, fear and hope about the next life; - Nordic religion was the worship of Odin and Thor, warriors religion; advocating manliness, generosity, loyalty, roughhonesty; sacrifice of cattle, horses or even slaves; not religion of dread, it taught not to be afraid of death; fatalistic, even gods were in the hands of Fate (Wyrd);

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- the first place where Christianity flourished on the British Isles was Ireland, which was baptised by St. Patrick (Romanised Briton missionary probably Welsh) date not certain 432-460 (?); - then the Irish began colonising Western Scotland and going there as missionaries; most important St. Columba landed on Iona island and founded there a church and monastery in 563; - later the Scoto-Irish Christianity managed to convert Northumbria;

- the other wing of Christian invasion to the island: the south: 597 the Roman mission to England led by St. Augustinelands in Kent (a tool of the pope Gregory the Great); Benedictine monks- often Nordic kings were persuaded by their Christian wives to convert to Christianity e.g. king Ethelbert (wife Bertha), later founding a church in Canterbury; - then Christianity started spreading into England; e.g. Paulinus converted King Edwin of Northumbria; later replaced by the mission of Aidan from Iona; - it began the dispute between the Celtic and Roman churches (different church organisations, different holiday dates etc.); it was resolved by the Synod of Whitby (664) summoned by Northumbrian king Oswy; giving Rome rights as the inheritor of St. Peter; - this decision to adhere to Roman system of religion gave impetus to the movement towards racial unity, kingly and feudal power, centralisation, systematic administration, legislation and taxation against tribal politics; - subsequent growth of church organisation, many parish churches; difficult to distinguish clearly between the Church and the State;

- Christianity also meant for England an advance in culture; it brought the Latin alphabet (easily adopted to the English language, only a few symbols added); - the alphabet made the school education possible, - the Bible opened to people the heritage of Christian and Oriental culture;

- interestingly, until the middle of 7th cent. main power in Saxon England was in the North (which never claimed the leadership later, perhaps until the industrial revolution); it was only later, after the coming of the Danes that the city of London became the leader of England

5. THE DANISH INVASION

- a hundred years after settling in Britain, Nordic people forgot their sea-faring skills, devoted themselves to farming life;- the invaders came actually both from Denmark as well as from Scandinavian fiords; - the Vikings were called sons of the creek landed on an inlet of water near the sea, built a fort and began to raid a country;- they were strong, violent men, looking for adventure, bloodshed, gold, drink and women their raids were the result of rumours of rich west as well as infertile lands and polygamy producing many landless solitary young men; - in their raids, the Vikings went as far as Piraeus or Constantinople; - around 787 the Danes first invaded Northumbria; purely destructive raids;- around 867 they organised so-called Great Army and after defeating Northumbrian, divided it among themselves;

- 871 Danish chief Guthrum sailed up the Thames and tried to conquer Wessex but was opposed by the new young kingAlfred Alfred the Great; Alfred bought peace for 5 years, later was attacked and defeated but managed to escape andreorganise the army- 878 Alfred defeats the Danes in the battle of the Valley of White Horse; knowing he was unable to drive the Danes outof England he signs a Treaty of Wedmore, establishing Danelaw (Northumbria, Eastern Mercia, leaving Wessex free), area where the Danes may settle and live according to their customs, but accepting Christianity;- Alfred well used the years of peace until his death (901); reorganised the army, created the navy, established the rules of law, introduced school system, many books translated from Latin

- only northern part of Northumbria (north of the Tyne) was not conquered by the Vikings; it remained the Saxon kingdom of Northumberland (for a few centuries between England and Scotland);- around 860 Kenneth MacAlpine became the King of the united Picts and Scots in the north;

- Alfreds son, Edward the Elder started the re-conquest of the Danelaw, it was completed by his successor Athlestan, - 973, Edgar, a grandson of Alfred, was crowned as the king of the whole united England, which consisted of Wessex and also included Mercia and Northumbria (Danelaw); - it was easy to incorporate the Danes from Danelaw as they were, just as Anglo-Saxons, of Nordic origin, and did not come to Britain to establish their kingdom;

- the life in late Anglo-Saxon England marked the breakdown of the tribal and clan social organisation, rise of feudal system, together with some specialisation of social functions;

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- there was a distinction between a peasant and a warrior; below the king there was a class of thegns (thanes) feudal lords whose function was to protect their freeholders, thralls and serfs in times of frequent wars, they worked for him; - this differentiation led far from equality but enabled settled order, civilisation and wealth; - every man must have a lord to be answerable in court for his misdoings (previously it was his kinsmen); - the kings had actually little control over thegns in local matters, needed them only for national defence - in general the prestige of the Crown rose when the Kings of Wessex became the Kings of all England - definitely some decentralising feudal tendencies, but they were to be postponed until much later; - United England was administered in four or six Earldoms

- about the end of 10th cent. the second wave of Danish invaders came to England in the times of an incompetent king Ethelred the Redeless (Unready); - they obviously did not attack Danelaw, but the south of England Wessex- Ethelred was not eager to fight the Danes but he preferred buying peace with so-called Danegeld: it began to be paid in Alfreds times, and amounted to extraordinary sums, contributing to the decline of English lower classes (heavy taxation); - soon after Ethelreds death there was a struggle for the throne between his son Edmund Ironside and Canute, son of Danish King Sweyn Forkbeard; Edmund soon died and the Saxon Witan had to choose his successor so they chose Canute (1016); who actually proved to be a fortunate choice for a king- this was the example of the elective character of English monarchy at that time; Canutes successors, Harold and William the Conqueror, had none of them legal title to the throne;

- during the times of later Danish wars the role of London as a city rose immensely; it was fortified and colonised by Alfred, in times of Ethelred it was centre of English resistance; it was initially opposing Canute, but later he turned out to be a good ruler also for London; - London was an important port, and Danish rule increased the safety of sea trade (pirates) in the North Sea; - the Danish merchants became the leading citizens of London;

- Canute at first was a foreign conqueror in England, holding his throne by the sword; - since 1020 he began the policy of reconciling the two races on a basis of equality and also started his alliance with the Church; - both Anglo-Saxon and Danish were official languages of the kings court- he established a navy and a professional army of housecarls- Canute could have established a strong Nordic empire (England, Norway, Denmark) but he died at forty (1035) and his empire soon dissolved for lack of adequate strong successors;

- after Canutes death his kingdom broke up between two sons; they both died soon and the Witan gave the throne to Edward the Confessor, the descendent of Ethelred, who was brought up in French Normandy; - Edward was a childless, pious king who was mainly interested in building Westminster Abbey (he was buried there and his throne is still used for the purposes of coronation)- Edwards interest was no longer directed towards the Nordic Empire but rather to Normandy, which resulted in preparing way for the Norman Conquest and Britains long link with France

6. THE NORMAN CONQUEST

- before, the influences that governed England came from Scandinavia, but dating from the accession of Edward the Confessor (1042), for the next hundred years they were to come from Normandy;- the Norman aristocracy were Scandinavian by origin (part of Normandy was similar to Danelaw in England), and keptthe Viking energy in colonisation and war, but become converts to Latin culture and Christianity;- they had one quality which Scandinavians and English lacked the instinct for political unity and administrative consolidation;- the Norman State established by Danes and Norsemen was different from other Viking states, and also different from French Paris-based state; most of peasants were French, Scandinavians included fishermen, merchants and aristocracy- new method of fighting: instead of fighting on foot with the battle-axe, they fought from the horse-saddle with the spear and sword, cavalry; more private castles- after the French model, Norman feudalism was strictly territorial, fixed and heritable - on the top was the Duke, then the barons, under each of them the knights and under them peasants: serfs bound to the soil and to his lord who owned the soil; they were not able to be transferred, unlike in England, which resulted in more stable and better organised structure;- the barons owed military service to the Duke on account of the lands they held from him (unlike in England where thegns did so by personal or national obligation); the knights had a similar obligation to barons; - the power of the Duke was very strong, he had his own administrative and tax officers; the power was supported strongly by the Church

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- the Normans, nonetheless, were not so much civilised: not learned, barbarian in treating subjects and enemies;

- after Canutes death his kingdom broke up between two sons; they both died soon and the Witan gave the throne to Edward the Confessor (1042), the descendent of Ethelred, who was brought up in French Normandy, and was more of aFrench monk than an English king; - Edward was a childless, pious king who prepared the way for the Norman Conquest and Britains long link with France; - Edward brought many Normans into high positions in English State and Church (a number of bishops); - he moved the kings capital from Winchester to London;- Edwards England was a weak country divided into six great Earldoms with powerful rulers, the most powerful Earl Godwin (Wessex, his daughter married Edward)

- 1066 Edward dies, and Harold, Godwins son (blood of Scandinavian kings) is elected king;- but his right to the throne was disputed and in the autumn of 1066 England was attacked in two separate invasions: by Harald Hardrada, King of Norway, and William, Duke of Normandy (distant relative to the Ethelred the old king), though bastard;- William claimed that once Edward named him as his successor (though last Edwards will was that Harold should takeover)- William prepared the way for his invasion of England by diplomacy and propaganda in many countries;

- William had no power under feudal law to call out his vassals to a foreign campaign for longer than 40 days; but manyof barons from Normandy, Brittany and Flanders voluntarily engaged in it; - the power of the army lay not in size but in training; there were at most 12,000 men, half of which cavalry; that they could conquer a country of 1.5 million people tells about political and military backwardness of the English system- the element of luck that William had was that England was attacked simultaneously in the north (Harald Hardrada, King of Norway) and Harold, after a victorious battle in the north (Stamford Bridge) had to rush to the southern coast, where the Norman landed; - the battle took place near Hastings (14 October 1066); two armies represented different systems; Harolds housecarls were infantry (sometimes on horseback) fighting with battle-axes, William had cavalry fighting with spearand sword, also archers with bows; - in the evening the battle ended, won by Duke William

- the battle had surprisingly hardly any effect in terms of resistance: earls, thegns, bishops and sheriffs thought that, like under Canute, they will retain their privileges and wanted to make easy peace with the conqueror; - on Christmas Day 1066, in Westminster William the Conqueror was crowned as lawful king of England (heir of Edward the Confessor); - the conquest, however, had different effects from previous invasions: it was an invasion of a group of barons who attacked the country to divide it among themselves and draw income from the land and work of Anglo-Saxon peasants; - in 1069 the Dukes of Mercia and Northumbria rebelled against William but were soon overpowered; - the last opposition was defeated by William in 1071 siege of the Isle of Ely (Fens marshland)

7. NORMAN INSTITUTIONS ESTABLISHED

- the conquest resulted in replacing old Anglo-Saxon form of feudalism with the new, Norman one (described before); - it put an end to the separation of the country into northern Danelaw and southern Wessex; - the Danish freeman became the villein of the manor (subject of the lord); - the English earls and thegns were replaced by the Norman barons- new administrative divisions of the country; old English shire replaced by Norman County;

- establishing a rigorously feudal system, William prevented England from falling into general European anarchy of political feudalism- he prepared the ground for the gradual development of monarchical bureaucracy far from despotic power- William swore to observe old Saxon laws;- it was a duty of a feudal king to consult his main tenants (who held land directly from him); it gave rise to royal Council or Court of William, which was the predecessor of the Parliament;- in 1086 William organised the Domesday Survey, preparing the Domesday Book collection of facts made for fiscal purpose an inventory of land, people, animals, crops etc. - in place of old Danegeld, the Norman King and Council imposed a heavy tax sum on each shire (county); - obviously taxation strengthened the royal power

- William brought his won bishops and imposed them on the Church; - four centuries of splendid ecclesiastical architecture began: the Norman builders replaced old Saxon churches with more magnificent structures;

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- the compulsory celibacy of priests was introduced at the bidding of the Pope; - one other reform of the Conqueror was the division of the spiritual from the secular courts; this enabled the development of English Common Law (it would not be possible with Roman Church courts of law);

- William the Conquerors successor, William Rufus, claimed the right to appoint bishops but often failed to do so in order to draw income from vacant bishops seats;- he was not as prudent monarch as his father, ruthless and despotic;- Rufus was generally hated and killed while hunting

- Rufus brother, Henry I, seized the throne, although it belonged to his brother Robert, who was on a crusade a cause for war;- Henry renounced the power of appointing bishops, giving it to the Pope; although he still had the tactical right of choice and was officially their liege;

- the final outcome of the Norman Conquest was the making of the English language;- the barons were French-speaking, so was the court influence of French on English language (visible now)- the Anglo-Saxon tongue, the language of Alfred and Bede was exiled from the hall, from court and cloister and despised as peasants jargon; it almost ceased to be the written language; - the gentry talked French and the clergy talked Latin; - because the English language was spoken by plain people for 3 centuries, its grammar easily simplified - at the same time, the vocabulary became enriched by the French; esp. in words relating to war, politics, justice, religion, cooking, hunting and art;- improved in this way, English re-entered more learned society;

8. THE EARLY PLANTAGENET KINGS HENRY II

- the medieval period (Middle Ages) as distinct from Dark Ages may be said to begin with the First Crusade (1095); growth from barbarism to civilisation; advance from despotic form of government, from Empire;- the characteristic institution of the Middle Ages was feudalism; the unit of power was the barony, the manor; good military, political and judicial organisation of power;

- after the death of Henry Is son, William, there was a period of anarchy under the reign of Stephen de Blois (Henrys nephew); - these were the years of a disputed succession between Stephen and Henrys daughter; the country was tortured by the atrocities of feuds; simple people exhausted by work to build great stone castles; - finally, Stephen was succeeded by son of Matilda and Geoffrey Plantagenet (1154), Henry Plantagenet;

- Henry II was actually French, came from Anjou (central France); he ruled both England as well as the western part of France, up to the Pyrenees; England was his largest province; his court moved often from place to place;- Henry developed strong monarchy;- from Henry II times the stabilisation, progress of civilisation, arts, crafts and wealth: French-speaking Kings preventedconstant invasions like in Anglo-Saxon period and stopped private wars within the country (typical of Medieval Europe);- the knights were no longer called out for feudal military service: it was hard for a foreign king to take them to France if he could do it only for 40 days; instead, the nobles started paying so-called shield-money for which the king boughtmercenaries (both English and foreign); actually some knights became mercenaries themselves, fighting in France, Scotland and elsewhere- the knight lost his interest in warfare, turning it to agricultural local matters: the predecessor of the figure of English country gentleman;- Henry II demolished many unlicensed stone castles and ordered the building of stone manor-houses; it had a walled courtyard at the front and one gateway protected by moss; defensible against a mob or a troop on horse but nor really against a serious siege (like a castle could be); - the rule of primogeniture adopted for land, to avoid dividing it among the sons, all goes to the eldest son; younger sonswere sent to Europe to seek fortunes;- the growth of a leisured class: more and more land under plough, increasing population of peasants, manorial system of agriculture, disinheritance of younger brothers all increased the wealth of the knights: they spent the surplus of it oncomforts and amenities in manor-houses, on arts and minstrels in the hall, they engaged in sports, hunting etc.- the wealth of the feudal classes caused the rise of towns, new middle classes engaged in manufacture and trade;

- the peasants: a freeman (freeholder) very few of them, proportionally; and villein (serf): half-slave, bound to the soil by birth and inheritance, he and his family were sold together with the estate, could not migrate, had to work a number of days a year on lords domain with his team of oxen to plough;

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- villeins work was supervised by lords bailiff; but lord did not have any claim on him on some days, villein could share the use and profit of village meadow, pasture, woodland and waste where they kept swine and geese; - the lords took some care of villeins, counting on their willing work; they were to a certain extent protected by law; the lords, e.g. could not raise the rent more than it was in the customary law; - the system flourished in England, in the Domesday Book times (1086) there were about 1.5 million inhabitants, it grew to the time of Black Death (1349) to 4 million; - the serf was quite primitive, fearful, ignorant, superstitious; - cattle and sheep were eaten only by lords, for peasants were pigs, fish and birds;- apart from farming: carpenters (built houses and furniture), thatchers (roofs), blacksmiths, women and children were spinsters (weavers); coarse clothing, often made of animal hide; - peasants lived in primitive wooden-clay houses, often without windows and chimneys, surrounded by a small orchard,garden or yard;- West and North small hamlets of a few dozen farms; East and Middle England large villages of 200-500 people; - lord, freeman and villein cultivated common field which had stripes belonging to each of them; one third of the fieldlay fallow each year; (MANORIAL VILLAGE PICTURE: TREVELYAN p. 151); - windmills uncommon, rather water mills;

- Henry II had a conflict with Thomas Becket: it was initially his friend and Henry appointed him Archbishop of Canterbury, wanting to have some control over church through him; - 1164 Henry proclaimed the Constitutions of Clarendon: they subjected churchmen to royal courts, forbade the church to excommunicate people without kings permission and forbade the clergy to appeal to Rome; - but Becket refused to accept the Constitutions and opposed Henry; - Henrys anger inspired four knights to murder Becket in Canterbury Cathedral; (T.S. Eliot Murder in the Cathedral)- Becket became a symbolical famous martyr, the state had to suffer problems; people started pilgrimages to Canterbury(Chaucers Canterbury Tales);

- the greatest benefits that England had from Henry II was the legal reform;- Henry recognised the old Anglo-Danish tradition of Common Law as a basis for legal system rather than Roman Law;- the Common Law was reworked in the new fashion- Henry II abolished old-fashioned barbarous methods of trial: compurgation (a man bringing his friends and family to support his oath); ordeal by hot iron (heathen originally but later performed by priests); trial by battle; - instead, he introduced the trial by jury- established the Central Court of Justice and the Appeal Court;

9. THE CRUSADES, MAGNA CARTA, BEGINNINGS OF PARLIAMENT

- improved warfare: feudal cavalry; self-confidence of Christian feudal kingdoms; many victories and regaining power (with Vikings, Spanish Moors, etc); - the Crusades satisfied the demands for piety as well as for exploration and plunder;- obviously, for England the Crusades were not a national movement (like e.g. for France), but for individual knights;- First Crusade with little involvement of the English (1095-1099)

- Third Crusade English King took part in it, taking with him a number of knights; Richard Coeur de Lion (the Lion-Hearted); - the legend made Richard a model of chivalry; W. Scotts Ivanhoe - he was not a successful king: negligent, absent, imposing heavy taxes on people; - quarrels with fellow-crusaders led to imprisonment in Austria; high ransom had to be paid for him; - leaving for a Crusade, Richard left the power in the hands of Hubert Walter, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and his brother John (called John Lackland); - John tried to take kings power when Richard was absent, but with the help of Hubert his treason was suppressed;- after releasing him, Richard soon left England again and died wounded by some knight a few years later (1199)

- John became Richards successor; - not a successful king, either; oppressed people through taxation; - the reign of John was the time of the movement of constitutional resistance, first only the demands of the Barons, then embracing all classes of freemen; - John was actually the man causing this: false, selfish, cruel, but without a good political strategy; - John started selling municipal independence to towns, they were becoming self-governed, London was the first city to elect their own Mayor; - John spent a lot on unsuccessful attempts to defend his French inheritance against the rising power of kings of France;- Johns coalition with German allies was defeated in 1214 in the battle of Bouvines loss of Normandy; gradual loss ofconnections with France;

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- the Barons, the bishops (led by Archbishop Stephen Langton) and the thanes combined and forced king John to sign Magna Carta Libertatum (the Great Charter of Liberties) 1215; a kind of constitution; but more technical and less general than later constitutions- it gave the church freedom of electing bishops- the barons and the towns were granted participation in fixing the amount of taxes; - no freeman could be imprisoned (or persecuted) unless tried by his peers and found guilty; - individual liberty- a council of 25 barons appointed to see that the points of charter were obeyed: a rather clumsy instrument, but barons did not have any idea of Parliamentary institutions; - the idea behind barons changes was not to undermine Henry IIs feudalism, but to put it under common control;- later Magna Carta became very symbolic liberty, roots of democracy etc. - a year later king John died (1216)

- succeeded by Henry III; the struggle for the Charter, period of civil war and constitution-making; - in 1258 a group of barons, led by Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester, forced King Henry III to accept a new form of government in which power was placed in the hands of a council of 15 members who were to supervise ministerial appointments, local administration and the custody of royal castles. Parliament, which was to meet three times a year, would monitor the performance of this council- the document was called Provisions of Oxford and was significantly written not only in French and Latin but also in English- Henry III broke the agreement in 1261 and Civil war broke out; Simon de Montfort's army met and defeated the royal forces at the Battle of Lewes in 1264;- in 1265 Simon de Montfort became the leader of the Parliament; he summoned not only the knights but also representatives from other social classes; - but it was soon dissolved after Simon was killed at the battle of Evesham in 1265; (this time was later compared to Cromwellian revolution)

10. EDWARDIAN TIMES: THE DEVELOPMENT OF INSTITUTIONS

- in the Middle Ages a human being in England had actually no human rights, personal freedom had to wait for the Renaissance and Reformation which, freeing the villeins, gave basis for new economic system- four new great institutions had increasing power in those times: A. the Universities; B. the orders of friars (travelling monks), C. the lawyers incorporated in the Inns of Court, D. the Parliament (the House of Commons)

A. Universities- Universities were the invention of Middle Ages, ancient learning and wisdom did not organise in this way- for long centuries the Church had all the knowledge in cloisters and cathedrals; - 12th century: new intentions for learning: partly owing to contacts set up by the Crusades (Arabic numerals mathematics), partly to study of classical Latin and Greek philosophy and learning; - universities spread in Europe in 12th and 13th centuries;

- partly because of the trouble between Henry II and the king of France, the English students at the University of Paris were forbidden by Henry to study there (1167), they migrated to their native island and founded a University at Oxford (not possible to establish an accurate date, since some teaching had already taken place there even in 11th century)- convenient location spot: easy access to the south and west of England; houses for lodging, taverns, etc.

- following the murder of two students accused of rape in 1209, the University was disbanded (leading to the foundationof the University of Cambridge). In 1214, the University returned to Oxford- Cambridge was a convenient spot as well: meeting-place of waterways and Roman roads from the north and east of England;- Scottish people went to Paris and Padua until they founded their own university at St. Andrews (1410)

- medieval Oxford and Cambridge were not for the upper classes: barons and knights considered themselves above this education- the villeins obviously were below it- a typical student came from the middle-class: a yeoman (farmer owning his ground), craftsman, tradesman; he studied from the age of 14 to 21;- university education opened the path to promotion in the Church and also to become a civil servant, secretary of a nobleman, physician, architect or lawyer; - the organisation of Universities depended on Colleges

B. Friars- coming from the continent in the 13th cent.; two orders: Dominicans and Franciscans;- made a great religious revival among the poor

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- they addressed the poorest, the most neglected, the diseased, those who were not sufficiently provided for by the parish system- before the friars, religion was addressed to more well-off, especially sacraments, friars made them more available- the movement connected with monasteries limited Gods garden to the area behind the monastery walls;- the theory was that friars could not hold any property; in practice, they had some libraries and churches; - in the 14th century the friars were considered enemies by the parish churches;

- in the 14th and 15th centuries money-lending passed into English hands as a result of the expulsion of the Jews- the Jews came to England after William the Conqueror; they were used by the king and barons to borrow money for interest; this practice was forbidden by the Christian church;- the only protector of the Jews was the king, they were otherwise hated, especially for their fortunes, often suffered horrible pogroms- Edward I drove the Jews out of England (~1290)- money-lending business passed into the hands of the Flemings and Italians, later of the English capitalist;

C. Legal reform- Edward I has been called the English Justinian (Roman emperor who codified the law)- under his reign the institutions of the medieval state began to flourish;- the years of Edward I saw the beginning of Statute Law: the legal-minded king passed many Statutes through his Parliament; - the Statutes were new, changed the substance of the law; before: old law, common law, Anglo-Danish, customary, unwritten; feudal law, customary; case law made by decisions of famous royal judges; - the Statutes mostly defined the feudal land law

- furthermore, Edward was responsible for defining the law courts; - the courts of Common Law were manned by secular people; new class of people, educated at Universities;- as the English Universities developed Colleges, the lawyers built their Inns of Court; they grouped their halls, librariesand dwelling places in one place, halfway between the commercial centre of London and the political capital at Westminster;

D. Parliament- Englands Parliament was not a fruit of any revolution but a gradual development;- during the times of three Edwards the Parliament acquired something like its present form- after the experiences of de Montfort, Edward I saw in frequent national gatherings the essence of government- Edwards object was not to limit the royal power, but to make it more efficient by keeping in tough with the life of the governed;- around 1295 he accepted the composition of Model Parliament, the complete image of the nation: barons, bishops,2 members chosen by each city, shire and diocese)- the Parliament was not divided into 2 houses, the House of Commons originated in the times of Edward III; - no taxation without representation motto; one of Edwardian purposes was collecting money for his wars with Scotland and France; - the king also used the Parliament to check the misdeeds of local officials; people could bring petitions and complaints

11. IRELAND, SCOTLAND, WALES (EDWARDIAN TIMES): SAXONS AND NORMANS VS. THE CELTS

Ireland- before: the times of the beginning of Christianity; monasticism- the invasions of the Vikings: the Danes conquered some land and founded port cities (e.g. Dublin), - the Irish were regarded as savages, as they were not controlled by the Pope- Adrian IV (the only English Pope) gave Henry II the right to conquer Ireland to bring it to Roman Christianity - Henry II was too busy on the continent, the conquest was began by private adventurers led by Richard de Clare, Earl of Pembroke, nicknamed Strongbow (coming from Wales); - the Danes were soon defeated and brought out of the country- the basis of Anglo-Norman rule in Ireland was the building of stone castles;- the natives were weaker, more primitive fighting methods, not united for the lack of feeling of national identity; living in tribes- Henry II did not have enough power to control the conquest and it continued slowly- a part of Ireland under English influence around Dublin was called Pale, the rest was a mixture of English feudal influences and Celtic chiefs

- in the times of Edward I a period of prosperity more attention paid by the king- Edward II: clashes with the Scots, the Bruce brothers invaded Ireland through Ulster; English influence weakened for 2 centuries;

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- The Hundred Years War distracted Englands attention from Ireland, Richard II in the interval of this war came with his army to Ireland and was defeated: for a long time no English king set foot in Ireland;- times of the War of The Two Roses: further neglect: return of Celtic tribalism on the island outside the Pale, Irish language and customs spreading through the island, even among the English in the Pale;

- however, the theoretical presence of England on the island prevented the forming of a state there; no strong national unity; the claims of the English king prevented the union of the country under Anglo-Irish barons;- in the 15th century there were attempts to form an independent government in Ireland but unsuccessful;- England was too weak to conquer and govern Ireland but strong enough to prevent her from governing herself;- neglecting Ireland for ages and involving elsewhere proved wrong historically for England;

Wales- the mountains in Wales brought Saxon conquest to a halt, but also prevented the union of the Welsh; - from William the Conqueror to Edward I, most successful attempts to conquer Wales were made by Marcher Lords, lords with private armies, representing rather English economic penetration than English monarchy; - once a Marcher Lord conquered a small area, he built a castle and imposed feudal dues on the inhabitants; brought English-speaking colonists- Anglo-Normans conquered the lowlands and valleys;- the remaining Welsh were tribal, pastoral people, - civilisation brought by Marcher Lords meant progress for the Welsh: permanent houses, market-towns, etc.; yet the Welsh preserved their tongue;

- early 13th cent. Welsh national revival: some territories were re-conquered from Marcher Lords, led by Llewelyn princes- Edward I defeated the Welsh (1280s), gave to his son the title of Prince of Wales (Principality established)- Principality was part of Wales (and it retained some Welsh customs), the rest was the territories of Lords Marcher;

- in 14th and 15th centuries Welsh was a scene of many tribal feuds, wars meant to re-conquer Wales by the Welsh, as well as wars between Marcher Lords;

Scotland- in the Dark Ages (before 10th cent.) Scotland was a Celtic Kingdom, bordering with Anglo-Saxon England; - it became one state after the union of the Picts and the Scots under Kenneth Macalpine (844)- later Lothian (northern part of Saxon Northumbria, south of Edinburgh) was integrated with Scotland, as a result of thedissolution of Northumbria; 1018- Lothian was a rich agricultural land with rock-fortress of Edinburgh; it helped develop feudal system of Anglo-Norman monarchy of Scotland (English language adopted)- as a result, Scotland was not so Celtic in its character as Ireland or Wales; even though it formed an independent state for a longer time;

- during the reign of Malcolm III and his wife Margaret (who did much to strengthen the English language) a period of English influence, especially connected with many Saxon/Nordic refugees after the lost battle of Hastings;- their son, David I, built Scotland anew in the form of a Norman feudal monarchy and took some disputed territories onthe border with England; - David I brought a number of knights from England, giving them land, as he wanted to strengthen the feudal system and get rid of old Celtic tribalism- 12th and 13th centuries is also a period of development of the church, influenced by the English church, flourishing architecture; - the old Celtic tribal organisation shrank, concentrating only in the northern highlands;

- 1286 Alexander III was carried over a sea-cliff by a horse and died; his heiress was grand-daughter Margaret; whe wassupposed to marry Edward Is son Edward II, which would have united both states, but died- dispute over the Scottish throne, Edward I supported Balliol, who soon became his puppet but renounced allegiance to Edward;- 1296 Edward easily marched with his army into Scotland and pronounced himself King of Scotland;- 1297 uprising began with William Wallace as a leader- Scottish aristocracy supported the English king (many of them owned land in England), but Wallace based his support on peasants and small gentry;- they began the guerrilla war, even though the English won many battles, they could not control the country as all peasants were potential warriors; - another leader of the Scottish became Robert Bruce, coming from aristocracy he added the feudal element to the fight- after the death of Edward I, the Scottish were winning more and more castles; the crowning victory of Bannockburn (1314), it finally give Scotland independence

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- but it became a poor, savage country of feudal anarchy, private wars, corrupt Church, no flourishing cities and weak institutions;

12. THE HUNDRED YEARS WAR

- the wars of medieval Europe were more local than since 16th century: involved mostly knights, the king could not afford to engage agricultural labour into war; inferior methods of transportation of the armies, - the wars were frequent, continuous, but on a small scale- the Hundred Years War (1337-1453) was perhaps the first national war in Europe

- after Norman conquest England was a rising power, strong monarchy, no involvement in conflicts, - English knights began plundering their continental neighbours; simply because they were more powerful- the fact that Edward III and Henry V had genealogical claims to the French throne was but an excuse for robbing- the war was not a result of dynastic ambitions but a national matter, supported by the institutions (Parliament)- it was much more profitable for an English knight to go to France to plunder than to poor Scotland- thats why in the early reign of Edward III English ambitions were redirected from Scotland to France; besides, Edward III spoke French, so he felt more at home there;- French resistance against the English was actually weaker than Scottish: France did not have a spirit of the nation, wasjust a collection of lords;

- the war against France was also fuelled by the conflicts between English and French merchants who sold wool to Flanders- first great action of the war: battle of Sluys (1340) won by the English merchant navy;- Edward III claimed the rights to the French throne and was, as the first English king, supported by the society, the Parliament; it rested on the hatred of the French in English-speaking common folk;

- the basis for the advantage of the English was a better social organisation: the French peasant serfs were strongly exploited and often rebelled; the English had a larger proportion of freemen, from whom the Edwards organised a trained army;- the 14th century became the age of the longbow as a preferred, most powerful weapon; using it was practised by the English since early years (actually Edward III banned other sports: handball, football, hockey); - English skilled archers could send an arrow through plates of armour- English fighting strategy also included changing cavalry into infantry: dismounting from horses; - the French were defeated by these tactics at Crecy (1346) (12,000 English against 30-40,000 French) after which Edward created his dominion in northern France and Poitiers (1356); both battles were led by Edward the Black Prince (son of Edward III), who died in France and his son Richard II was the next king; - the advantage of the English strategy was that it was defensive; later France was liberated by Du Guesclin, who changed the French strategy of blind attacks; English castles in France were successfully besieged with the use of cannon;

- Richard II found rival in his cousin, John Gaunts son, Hereford; he was murdered in his prison in 1400;- Hereford was crowned as Henry IV in 1399 and opens the period of the Lancasters on the English throne (descendantsof John de Gaunt) and the Yorks (descendants of his brother, Duke of York)

- Henry V, on his accession to the throne 1413, revived Edward IIIs pretensions to the French Crown;- using the strategy of the Black Prince he fought the French at Agincourt and decisively won 1415; 5,900 English against 35,000 French (!); - 1420 Henry V was acknowledged heir to the French Crown by the Treaty of Troyes; - 1422 he died, leaving his inheritance for his son, Henry VI;

- during the times of Henry VI came the second French revival, following the tactits of Du Guesclin;- it was also the time of Jeanne DArc (Joan of Arc), a 17-year-old shepherdess who claimed to hearing the voice of God, persuaded him to take action, she had a flair for persuasion but no actual tactical, strategic or leadership ability- together with Charles de Dauphin, Joan started the siege of Orleans (1429); it was successful for them; The French victory at Orleans was a major turning point for the French in the Hundred Years War- Jeanne D'Arc was captured by the Burgundians, and turned over to the English, who found her innocent of witchcraft but guilty of schism (going against the Papacy and Church dogma by following the voice of God directly), and executedher- later more victories of the French, but it took them more than 20 years until they drove the English away

Results of the war:- the break-up of English medieval society and a period of anarchy

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- gaining the port of Calais for a hundred years after the war;- bringing strong national self-consciousness; - new patriotic feeling raised as racial hatred against the French (in the times of Elisabeth I these feelings turned against Spaniards)- six years after Poitiers (1362), a statute was passed through Parliament that all judgements of English courts should be given in English and Latin (to replace French); - also English became the language taught at schools to the upper class- it prepared way for English-tongue literature: Chaucer, Shakespeare, Milton;

13. THE BLACK DEATH, EMANCIPATION OF VILLEINS

- the English (and in general European) population was decimated by the Black Death in 1348-9 (bubonic plague duma dymienicza, spread by fleas and rats) (theories: anthrax or Ebola-like virus)- in sixteen months the number of population decreased from 4 million to 2.5 million- the war in France was not stopped

- the market value of labour force rose- the labourer who was free demanded more for his work, the villein started to struggle against the demands of the bailiff, asking full freedom- lords and bailiffs were in a dilemma: no people to work on their farmland: it was partly solved by using soil for sheep-pastures; raw wool was exported to Flanders looms; - the Parliament passed the Statute of Labourers (restoring the old institution of villeins, under heavy penalties)

- new ideology for peasants, agitation, gradually brought more and more protests;- free labourers went on strike, villeins often left their land, - Peasant Revolt began in June 1381, - times of Richard II, his incompetent government wanted to collect taxes for the war in France (unpopular at the moment); - among the leaders of the revolt were John Ball (priest) and Wat Tyler;- the peasants organised in an army and marched on London- King Richard II and the Mayor of London gave them a lot of promises and the Mayor treacherously killed Wat Tyler- after the rebels dispersed, the promises were never kept, but the participants of the revolt were persecuted;

- despite the defeat of the revolt, it was very important for the later process of the emancipation of the villeins, who mostly bought their freedom; the process took place in the 15th century and finished under the Tudors- the emancipated villein changed into a small farmer called yeoman- the emancipation gave basis for modern economy, growth of trade, manufacture and colonisation

- 14th and 15th centuries also saw the loss of moral and intellectual leadership of the Church; the failure of the cosmopolitan church of the Middle Ages;- persecution was an integral part of medieval Christianity, it was natural to persecute people disobeying the church- the basis for revolutionary Reformation were inherent in the structure of the medieval church, especially in the following:- unfair distribution of ecclesiastical wealth among priests- celibacy- choosing Popes favourites, often from foreign countries, to occupy main posts in the church- sale of pardons and relics (superstitious) that revolted the better part of the society; - church courts spied on people in hope of extracting money as fines for sin

- the Church of England was in no position to reform herself all officials were subject not to English bishops but directly to Rome- Pope-appointed favourites were foreigners treating England as source of income

- it was all the basis for movement started by John Wycliffe, an Oxford don- he found a theoretic basis for denying the Papal authority: theory of dominion the Popes power was derived from Caesars of Rome, not from Christ and Peter;- he was involved in politics, in the contest between the state and the church- he demanded the service in English and produced the first full English translation of the Bible; - he was considered the precursor of the Protestant Reformation; the movement he started was called Lollardry;

14. PARLIAMENTARY DEVELOPMENT, WARS OF TWO ROSES

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- in the times of Richard II the Commons had no policy of its own but were the instrument of higher aristocratic powers in the strife with one another- in the 15th century the premature experiment in Parliamentary control of the executive ended in the aristocratic anarchy: the Wars of the Roses.- later, finally, skilfull Tudor monarchs used Parliament as the instrument of a revolution in Church and State;

- in the times of The Hundred Years War the kings had to continually ask the Parliament to support heavy taxation: it resulted in increasing the powers of the Parliament; - the medieval English Parliament was not only an assembly voting taxes and making laws (Statutes), it also functioned as the High Court of Parliament a judiciary function;- this enabled to regard the king himself as subject to law and not the absolute monarch; - the Revolution of 1399 (starting the Lancasterian period with Henry IV) gave more powers to the two Houses of Parliament, the Lancaster kings ruled by Parliamentary title and the powers and privileges of both Houses had to be respected by them

- the battlefield for quarrels of the gentry was the Kings Council, where the executive power was lodged;- the nobles regarded the Council as a body representative of the forces of the State, but the King believed it was his personal body, to be filled with whomever he liked: a wise King would put trained experts there, a foolish King his favourites;- in the times of Henry VI the Council fell into the hands of the nobles; Henry became King when he was a few months old, England was ruled by regency government, until Henry was 16; - the supremacy of the nobles in the Council continued and the conflicts finally started the Wars of the Roses (1455)- the Council and the Parliament were both controlled by the same aristocratic cliques whose only contests were against one another

- the last of the English were driven out of France after the Hundred Years War in 1453, just two years before the Warsof the Roses began: the return of the armies filled England with knights and archers accustomed to war and plunder, willing to fight;- many conflicts between the gentry, abuses of law, intimidating juries, besieging manor houses, etc. - anarchy - savage customs; arranged marriages of children; foundation of new schools: Winchester, Eton;

- the Wars of the Roses was an intermittent civil war fought over the throne of England between adherents of the Houseof Lancaster and the House of York- both houses were branches of the Plantagenet royal house, tracing their descent from King Edward III- the name Wars of the Roses was not used at the time, but has its origins in the badges chosen by the two royal houses, the Red Rose of Lancaster and the White Rose of York.- the reason of the conflict was the want for power, wealth and ultimately the Crown

- Henry VI (Lancaster) was considered a weak, ineffectual King after losing all French territories won by his predecessors; he was also known for episodes of mental illness- in 1453 after the attack of Henrys illness, a Council of Regency was set up with Lord Protector: Richard Plantagenet (head of House of York); - but in 1455 Henry recovered and his power was taken by his strong wife Margaret of Anjou; - Richard wanted to oppose her and resorted to armed conflict, starting the first Battle of St. Albans;

- on each side there was a group of great nobles, knights, lawyers and clergy- but changing of the sides and remaining neutral was very popular: most cities remained neutral and in return the armies were not destructive;- the neutral majority of the society suffered little and trade went on as before;- the combatants suffered severely; the fighting nobles were savage in their treatment of one another; - the war was a bleeding operation performed by the nobility upon their own body. To the nation it was a blessing in disguise.- like in France: the strategy: archers and infantry

- the victorious figure was Edward IV from the House of York, whose restoration as King in 1471 was by some considered the end of the war- the Yorkist king died suddenly in 1483, and political and dynastic turmoil erupted again; - at the time of Edward's sudden and premature death, his heir, Edward V, was only 12 years old; - Edward V was kept in the Tower of London, where he was later joined by his younger brother Richard- Parliament gave the throne to Richard III (also York)- the two princes in the tower disappeared and were possibly murdered (mystery not finally resolved)

- Lancastrian hopes now centred on Henry Tudor, whose father had been an illegitimate half-brother of Henry VI;

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- Henry Tudor's forces defeated Richard's at the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485 and Henry Tudor became King HenryVII of England- Henry strengthened his position by marrying Elizabeth of York, daughter of Edward IV and the best surviving Yorkistclaimant- He reunited the two royal houses, merging the rival symbols of the red and white roses into the new emblem of the redand white Tudor Rose

15. RENAISSANCE: THE BEGINNING OF THE TUDORS: HENRY VII, THE NEW MONARCHY

- new era of individual rebirth, Renaissance and Reformation; - the Medieval Corporation all separate states the same: clergy, nobles, villeins; no individual freedom, - the roots of the changes to be found in 14th and 15th centuries: the emancipation of villeins, the growth of London (andcities), the rise of educated classes, the spread of cloth manufacture, the rise of Parliament, the adoption of the English language by the educated classes, the victory of archers over the mounted aristocrat, the invention of the cannon to defeat the aristocratic stronghold of the castle, the invention of printing press to shatter churchmans monopoly of learning, the discovery of the ocean trade routes and of America (the New World); - it all was responsible for dissolvingthe fabric of medieval society in England; - in France, Spain, Portugal: increasing power of the King based on the old Church, in England new church, but old Parliament;

- Henry VII is remembered as the English counterpart of Louis XI, cautious, thrifty, opening his heart for nobody;- after the Wars of the Roses England expected no more chivalry and wars, but peace and the enforcement of order- Henry VII kept no standing army, occasionally he hired foreign mercenaries;- he preserved old medieval institutions (Kings Council, Parliament, Common Law, Justices of the Peace and jury), butmade them instruments of royal power instead of French of Spanish way of despotic power of monarch

- the centre of new constitutional power became Kings Council (Privy Council)- Kings Council was the field of aristocratic fights before, now Henry VII (and VIII) excluded all nobles who could be disobedient- the members of Privy Council under Henry VII were middle-class clergy, new civil servants; after Henry VIII the clergy were replaced by lawyers, coming from middle class but with aristocratic aspirations, devoted to the King, they had University legal education and experience from foreign travel loyal and efficient- the Council had a legislative power: through ordinances and proclamations directly, suggesting Statutes and Bills to the Parliament- the Parliament was not very important under Henry VII, its importance rose in times of Henry VIIIs Reformation

- Privy Council delegated a sub-committee of its own members, for judicial matters, Star Chamber;- Star Chamber was the highest court in the state, it became popular as it protected the weak from the strong, being Henry VIIs chief instrument of controlling illegal riots and similar activities; - through the influence of the Star Chamber local courts regained their independence; juries became no longer afraid of giving verdicts against powerful neighbours,

- because it was not possible for the King to impose heavy taxation, he had to limit the expenditure: a way of doing it was imposing more and more administrative duties on the unpaid Justices of the Peace (magistrates)- the function of JPs was to exercise the local powers given them by the Privy Council, they tried small offences, arrested criminals, kept prisons, roads and bridges, licensed ale-houses, became agents of economic control of the state;

- obviously the political changes of the Tudor rule limited the role of aristocracy: it was possible because of the Wars ofthe Roses they limited the number of aristocrats, led to confiscation some of their wealth by the crown, and persuaded lower classes to follow the King;

- the change from medieval to modern England may be seen on the example of cloth trading- first English wool was exported to Flanders and Italy to the looms: it gave basis for trading wealth of Plantagenet England;- a large number of Flemish weavers started coming to England since the times of Edward III, partly in connection with the Hundred Years War, then a big wave of religious refugees in Elizabethan times- the weaving manufacturing developed in the 15th and 16th centuries especially in East Anglia, in cities (Norwich) but also in rural areas; - it gave basis for the trade of wool products: Baltic sea, East and West Indies, America; this, in turn, developed the navy- cloth trade gave rise to the new middle class

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- apart from the positive effect, cloth trade had some negative impact on rural development- in certain districts it caused enclosure (of permanent walls or hedges) of open fields (arable or unused) of the villagefor pastures for sheep it meant the eviction of many ploughmen to make room for a small number of shepherds- evicted ploughmen wandered around the country as beggars or rogues, robbers and outlaws;- enclosure had a positive effect, too: it secured compact farms of yeomen, stopping border conflicts and litigations- still, primogeniture secured some large farms for the lords; it left younger sons for liberal professions or foreign adventure;

- the 15th century was an intellectually barren period: suppression of freedom during wars, no great literature after Chaucer;- the restoration of peace and order was a favourable condition for intellectual revival

- the revival of Lollardry: started by John Wycliffe, religious movement; anti-clerical, stress on Bible-reading, translating it into the vernacular; - the movement was forbidden, quite a few Lollards went to the stake, but it survived in secret;

- Renaissance coming from Italy: interest in Greek and Roman literature and culture; changing the Middle Ages attitudeto learning- through Greek and Hebrew new interest and understanding of the Bible; John Colet lectures on St. Paul- English Renaissance more closely connected with religion than Italian or French- Henry VII was little interested in knowledge, but the court of Henry VIII included a number of learned men

- the age of sea voyage: western European countries sent ships to Asia, discovering America and parts of Africa;- the pope drew the line down the globe from pole to pole to divide all discoverable land between Spain (west) and Portugal (east) 1493;- the voyages of Columbus, Magellan, Amerigo Vespucci, - in Henry VIIs reign, the Cabots (John and his son Sebastian) sailed to Labrador, Newfoundland and Nova Scotia; - England did not promote maritime adventure yet, not to lay hands on Spanish heritage;

- Henry VIII made possible the future liberation of his countrys energies by means of founding a Royal Navy- building royal fleet was started in times of the Hundred Years War by Henry V, but later neglected- Henry VIII built an effective fleet of royal fighting ships - he also founded Trinity House: a corporation taking care of lighthouses, providing aid to navigation and caring after safety, welfare and training of mariners; - the ships were new and modern: well adapted to ocean voyage, to manoeuvring in battle; they were longer and not so round as old-fashioned Spanish ships; with cannons mounted; - 1545 a French armada attempted to invade England, but was foiled by the Royal Navy;

16. HENRY VIII AND REFORMATION

- in Tudor England there was no clear distinction between Catholic and Protestant parties, the opinions of people were forming, not ready- Reformation was the change from medieval to modern society in the sphere of religion- England was the country of John Wycliffe and Lollards; - the best background for the Protestant movement was anti-clerical mood in the society, powerful at the beginning of the 16th century;- in some people this anti-clericalism meant a greedy desire to plunder the church, but in general it was the critical attitude to churchmen, who used the doctrine for their own individual goals- critical attitude to selling indulgencies- Henry VIII burnt Protestants, while he hanged and beheaded the Catholic opponents of anti-clerical revolution

- the prelude to Henrys breach with the Pope was the German Reformation under Martin Luther (1518); - it for some years annihilated the prestige of Rome as a centre of religious authority; it was sacked by the armies of Charles V, Emperor in Germany and King of Spain- after being proclaimed at Wittenberg, Lutheran doctrines soon became popular (although banned) in England, they absorbed Lollards into the Protestant movement

- while young men eagerly joined the new movement, many older, even open-minded, remained orthodox (like sir Thomas More)- Oxford was more orthodox, Cambridge circles were more open to Protestantism, students discussed the ideas

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- educated in Cambridge, archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer, was one of the main church followers of HenrysReformation, he was not so uncompromising like others, who lost Kings regard soon, Cranmer remained with Henry till his very death- Cranmer replaced archbishop Wolsey, a former head of church (acting as head of state in times of Henrys youth); Wolsey did not want to follow Henrys reformatory ideas so he was ousted and died in disgrace;

- at the time of the sack of Rome, Henry, 36, reached a point in which he wanted to switch his interests from hunting and tournaments into politics, government and state administration; as he was an energetic person, he poured all his energy into it- one of the formal reasons for his breach with Rome was the necessity for a divorce;- he was married to Catherine of Aragon, with whom he had only a daughter, Princess Mary; but as there was no tradition of a Queen in England, he wanted to secure a male heir to avoid conflicts; - he wanted to marry Anne Boleyn, his court mistress; - technically, it was not actually a question of divorce, but of whether Henry had been at all properly married to Catherine, who had been married before- the Pope denied Henry divorce; actually granting a divorce for a King, for reasons of state only, was done and popular in those days, but Pope, after the sack of Rome, was under the influence of Charles V, Catherines nephew and protector- Henry could not tolerate that the interests of England should be subjected, through the Pope, to the will of the EmperorCharles; in the age of strong English nationalism, he wanted for the state full independence;- the English people sympathised with Catherine rather than Anne, but the political and ecclesiastical side took over the personal one: the spirit of nationalism combined with anti-clericalism;- the persecution that followed was Catholic anti-clericalism: many people were sent to scaffold for refusal to repudiate Papal authority (like sir Thomas More), but at the same time Protestants died at the stakes for other reasons- the religious persecution seems more harsh nowadays, in fact people saw it then as a government keeping order in church and state, besides, much more people died in religious wars in France, Holland and Germany- Henry gained the title Defender of Faith, e.g. for writing a pamphlet accusing Martin Luther of heresy;

- the instrument for Henrys Royal Reformation was the Parliament- it was not an ecclesiastical assembly called Convocation (there were two: Canterbury and York), as they did not have any representation of the laity; - the clergy accepted being subjected to the King without much ado, it was for them just the change of the supreme power (from the Pope to the King), but they retained most of their privileges; in effect the Reformation was not a cause of a religious war in England- in 1531 Convocation acknowledged that Henry was Supreme Head of the Church of England, but so far as the law of Christ allows (this phrase was given up later)- before, in the times of Henry VII, the Parliament lost much of its previous power, now it was to regain part of it- the Reformation Parliament sat for 7 years: 1529-1536; in a series of Royal Parliamentary Statues (prepared by the Privy Council, but voted over by both Houses) it revolutionised the fundamental law of Church and State;- first acts reforming certain Church abusive practices were passed in November 1529- 1534 the Parliament passed the Act of Supremacy: stating that Henry VIII was 'the only supreme head in earth of the Church of England' and that the English crown shall enjoy "all honours, dignities, jurisdictions, privileges, authorities, immunities, profits, and commodities to the said dignity".- furthermore, the Act decided that any act of allegiance to the Pope was to be considered treason

- the economic aspect of Reformation was the suppression of orders of monks and friars and the secularisation of their property, called Dissolution of the Monasteries (Suppression of the Monasteries); - In 1534 Henry authorised Thomas Cromwell, a layman in his service, to "visit" all the monasteries, ("Visitation of the Monasteries"), - the Visitations results stated that monks and nuns were sinful hypocritical sorcerers, often leading scandalous lives;- the process of dissolution took part 1536-1540; - Some of the confiscated church buildings were destroyed by having the valuable lead removed from roofs and stone reused for secular buildings. Some of the smaller houses were taken over as parish churches, and were even bought for the purpose by wealthy parishes; - Other losses to posterity included widespread destruction of many valuable books held in the monastic libraries. It is believed that many of the earliest Anglo-Saxon manuscripts were lost at this time. Monastic schools and hospitals were also lost, with serious consequences locally - Henry VIII sold great part of the confiscated Abbey lands to aristocrats, public servants and merchants, who resold much of it to smaller men; Henry sold the lands too hastily, so he could have earned more for it;

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- the monks and old religion received most support in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire (centres of feudal medieval society), the result was the rising, the Pilgrimage of Grace in 1536; but the King received strong support from the rest of the country;- the monks and friars did not receive any support from parish priests who saw them as their rivals who exploited them and evaded the law;

- Henry VIII, as Supreme Head of the Church, reformed the religion- relic worship was forbidden, relics were discarded and pilgrimages discouraged- the shrine and cult of Thomas Becket (the centre of European pilgrimage) was suppressed; - many forms of superstition were stopped, like image-worship or pardon-mongering; - the Bible in English circulated freely and was ordered for every parish, the Lords Prayer, the Commandments were taught in English

- at some point Henry decided that it was going too far, he beheaded some of his ostracising advisors, like Cromwell (1540) (partly because his bride Anne of Cleves brought by Cromwell from Germany was of a disagreeable appearance)- still, some hostility in the last years of Henrys reign remained (e.g. a man was hanged in London for eating meat on Friday, The Act of Six Articles decreed death for denying clerical celibacy or the necessity of auricular confession)

- Henry VIII is also historically famous for having six wives; it was partly connected with his obsession that he will die without the male heir (which sort of actually came true)1. Catherine of Aragon: a couple of miscarriages or prematurely dead children including three sons; one surviving daughter Mary (Queen Mary I) divorced (marriage declared non-valid)2. Anne Boleyn: two dead sons and daughter Elisabeth (Queen Elisabeth I) accused of adultery (five lovers) and incest (with brother) and beheaded; 3. Jane Seymour: a son Edward (king Edward VI) died two weeks after delivering the son4. Anne of Cleves brought from Germany and advertised by Cromwell but found very unattractive by Henry, marriage soon annulled as not consummated; 5. Catherine Howard (cousin of Anne Boleyn) probably had an affair with a courtier, appointed her ex-fianc as secretary; accused of adultery = treason and beheaded6. Catherine Parr initially Protestant, but submissive, helped Henry reconcile with two daughters; survived divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived- Henry died (obesity, syphilis?, ulcerating wound) 1547

17. EDWARD VI AND MARY TUDOR

- all the political achievements of the early Tudors (Henry VII and VIII) had not been secured after the death of Henry VIII- the state was in debt and the religious conflicts were about to break, losing their suppression- the problems needed a strong monarch, and were eventually solved by Elizabeth, but in 12 years before her accession, the country was in chaos

- Edward VI (son of Henry VIII and Jane Seymour) was 9 at his accession (1547); - Edward was a sick and weak child, but very well developed intellectually- he appointed his uncle Edward Seymour to serve as Lord Protector Somerset during his minority and rule the state in his name; Somerset was a rash man, proud and selfish, but also honest

- Edwards reign was also dominated by Archbishop Cranmer, who prepared Prayer Book, based on his translations from Latin into English; it appealed to the population and gave solid basis of anti-clerical revolution (it was later found triumphant in Elizabethan times)- another influential figure was Hugh Latimer, also a man of church; he was a Protestant and in the times of Henry VIII had to give up his position; his rough skilful sermons converted many people to Protestantism- Latimer believed in the importance of education in the society; so he supported re-establishing King Edward Grammar Schools in the place of abolished monastery schools

- the Protector Somerset supported the Parliaments change of most oppressive of Henry VIIIs laws- he persecuted neither Catholics nor Protestants and permitted free discussion of religious differences, also published the first issue of Prayer Book - these acts of liberalism led to religious conflicts getting hotter- there were serious religion-based disturbances in various parts of the country- to follow, there were also agrarian protests (caused also by the rising prices in Henrys times)- 1549: armed peasants revolted under their leader Kett (famously killing and eating 20,000 sheep in Mousehold Heath)

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- the rising was suppressed by better organised classes its result was pressure for stronger government and the fall of liberal Somerset who was soon overthrown by the Council

- Somerset was replaced by Dudley, Earl of Warwick and later of Northumberland- he did not have his own strong religious opinions but decided to work with Protestants and gave more impetus to the Reformation- Dudley returned some Henrys strict laws, but this time against Catholics: some of them were deprived or imprisoned, but not killed- Dudley was unpopular as a ruler, and he deserved it; his rule are the times of corruption and greed among courtiers; the country was weak, there was no King to solve the problem- as Edward was close to death, Dudley planned to exclude both Henrys daughters and plant on the throne his daughter-in-law, Lady Jane Grey, a distant heir- when Edward VI died (tuberculosis, arsenic poisoning or syphilis from his father), the plan was not successful, and Mary became Queen July 1553- Dudley renounced his Protestantism, but was nevertheless beheaded on Tower Hill, as was Lady Jane Grey later- After Edward's death rumours of his survival persisted, several impostors were put forward as rightful Kings even in Marys and Elizabeth's reign;

- Mary I began her reign (37) in an atmosphere of popular enthusiasm, which was, however, dissipated very quickly- she was, typically of Tudors, effective and brave in the times of danger, and had no personal vindictiveness- the problem was her religious views- daughter of Catherine of Aragon, she was brought up in the Catholic religion of her mother, important was her mothers Spanish origin- Mary cared mostly for the souls of the English, believing they could be safer in Italian or Spanish hands, but returning to old Christian religion

- at that time Protestantism was associated with violence, unrest, robbing the churches etc. - if would have been safe and popular for Mary to return to religious compromise, to restore the Latin Mass and perhapskill a few Protestants- but Mary decided to marry Philip of Spain, making England Spanish vassal - then, in her religious zeal, she decided to revive the jurisdiction of the Pope over England and burnt 300 Protestants in 4 years (earning a name Bloody Mary)- these acts made the Catholic religion appear to the English nation as a cruel, unpatriotic, foreign creed;

- unfortunately, the Parliament, which supported the accession of Mary, had no constitutional power to prevent her frommarrying the Spanish prince; - the national feeling was expressed by the rising in Kent under Thomas Wyatt (1554) (son of the poet of the same name)- Wyatt was defeated at the gates of London, then executed and Mary married Philip- Philip was titled as King of England, he signed documents with Mary; he found his wife (11 years older) physically unattractive and when she thought she was pregnant, left her and went to Spain

- then Mary turned to religious matters, reuniting with Rome and bringing back Popes supremacy- persecution followed earning her Bloody Mary epithet;

- having inherited Spanish throne Philip came to England and persuaded Mary that England should join Spain in a war against France- the result was the capture of Calais by the French (the last possession in the continent, from the times of Hundred Years War)- this obviously contributed to rising unpopularity of Mary

- Mary had problems with getting pregnant, suffered from phantom pregnancy several times, probably due to some ovarian disease- Mary died at the age of 42 of influenza, uterine cancer or ovarian cancer on 17 November 1558- she was hated by the people of England, left by her husband who already started favouring her sister- she left the country in a bad condition: ill-governed, without arms and leaders, without unity and spirit, a vassal of the Spanish Empire

18. ELIZABETHAN ERA

- Mary attempted to re-establish the rule of the cosmopolitan church, with a foreign language- it was popular with the clergy, with semi-feudal society of Northern England, but highly unpopular with Londoners- Elizabeth soon re-established the supremacy of the national, laic State with a national church

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- the political-religious conflict finally ended in a maritime war against Spain (the head of the Catholic reaction in Europe)- the struggle for the independence of the island united the peoples of England and Scotland, then it gave basis to the conquest of Catholic Ireland

- when Elizabeth became Queen, at the age of 25 (Nov. 1558), the country was in no condition to resist a foreign invader- it was divided by religious conflicts, it had been dependent on Spain for several years, was very weak financially- Philip of Spain protected the Queen and her rule, even though she was not Catholic- the reason was the next heir to the English throne: Mary Queen of Scots Catholic but married to the Dauphin of France- for many years during Elizabeths reign the independence of heretic England was secured by the rivalry between two Catholic superpowers: France and Spain

- Elizabeth did not admit that she owed anything to him, she said she owed everything to the English people - she stressed the fact of being purely English, not having any foreign ancestry, Im mere English- Elizabeth mastered the skill of attracting her people to her: her learning (Greek, Latin, Italian) endeared her to the Universities, her courage to the soldiers and sailors, her coquetry to the nobles and courtiers; her popularity was strengthened by her love of hunting, dancing and theatre

- the Parliament of 1559 restored the Reformation in its Anglican form by passing the Act of Supremacy (which abolished the Papal power giving it to the monarch) and the Act of Uniformity (which made the Prayer Book the only legal form of worship)- the Reformation was done with the support of the Queen and the Commons, the House of Lords was against it, esp. the bishops, - the church was controlled by the Queen by means of Commissioners and Bishops who inspected and administered it- in her decisions upon religion Elizabeth largely depended on advice from Sir William Cecil- She appointed an entirely new Privy Council, removing many Roman Catholic Counsellors

- her reason for never marrying is unclear:- she may have felt repulsed by the mistreatment of Henry VIII's wives- Alternatively, she may have been psychologically scarred by her rumoured childhood relationship with Lord Seymour- gossip: she had suffered from a physical defect that she was afraid to reveal, perhaps scarring from smallpox- or perhaps Elizabeth did not wish to share the power of the Crown with another- finally, she was remembered as the Virgin Queen;

- 1559 was also the date of Scotlands Reformation and breach with Rome - it caused the alliance of both countries in mutual defence; in 1558 England was a Catholic country dependent on Spain, and Scotland a Catholic country dependent on France;

- before, in 1540s the Catholic party lad the national resistance against the English: King Henry VIII wanted to unite thewhole island, enforcing it on the Scots, this policy was followed by Protector Somerset; - to save the little girl Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots, the Scots sent her to France;- with French support Mary declared herself Queen of England, part of the agreement of France was the presence of French army in Scotland many people hated it- when Mary was 16 she was married to the Dauphin of France (1558); in case of her death without heirs the country was to be given to French Crown

- 1557 Scottish nobles formed the Congregation of the Lord, to protect new Protestant religion, - 1559 a democratic religious revolution takes place, led by John Knox: a religious reformer, who spent some time imprisoned by the French, then travelled on the Continent, in Geneva was influenced by John Calvin; Knox established the Presbyterian Church of Scotland- Scottish reformation was bloodless; - after the death of her husband, Francis II, Mary, 18, returned to Scotland (1561) and for six years struggled for power against Knox- the Protestants in Scotland had to ally with the Protestants in England; most of Catholic feudal influence came from the North of England sparsely populated and of limited importance

- Mary married Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, a descendant of King Henry VII of England and had by him a son, James- Darnley demanded his rights as King, but he was murdered by Bothwell, whom Mary soon married- the nobles gathered an army against Mary and Bothwell, they imprisoned her for some time, forcing her to abdicate the throne for the sake of her son, but in 1568 she flied to England where she was imprisoned by Elizabeth

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- from the moment Mary was imprisoned, English Catholics, urged by the Pope, Spain and the Jesuits, started plotting to put her on Elizabeths throne- first crisis: the Northern rebellion (1569, 1570); the Catholics from the North of England rebelled, but with the help of the South, the Queen was defended; Elizabeth took vengeance on the gentry, executing 800 of them- the failure of the Northern rebellion showed the internal unity of new England

- in 1570 Pope Pius V excommunicated Elizabeth and many French or Spanish people started plotting against her, her possible assassination became a very popular topic- the Commons demanded that Elizabeth executed Mary, but she did not: partly for pacifist reasons, but she also believed that after Mary is killed, Philip, King of Spain would claim the throne of England- in 1572, Elizabeth made an alliance with France; St Bartholomew's Day Massacre (thousands of French Protestants killed), strained the alliance but did not break it; Elizabeth even began marriage negotiations with Henry, Duke of Anjou and afterwards with his younger brother Franois, Duke of Anjou; the Spanish Ambassador reported that she actually declared that the Duke of Anjou would be her husband; however, Anjou, who is in any case said to have preferred men to women, returned to France and died in 1584 before he could be married- later Elizabeth gave some secret help to Huguenots (French Protestants)

- together with new geographical discoveries, new routes of trade and colonisation, new possibilities opened for the English islanders, no longer sentenced to their seclusion- the contest for new commercial and naval leadership was between Spain, France and England;- Spain and Portugal were the first countries to exploit the new situation on a large scale (1494 Popes division of the world); they led to many discoveries along African and American coasts; in 1580 Spain annexed