the_history_of_britain

A History of Britain

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a country situated in the British Isles, which is a union make up of four countries: England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, including

several overseas territories. It’s said that: to study the history of Britain is to learn a story about how a country was conquered and had been combined. However, I would like to divide the history of Britain into three parts, which not only about how the Britain was formed, but also what have had great influence in the Britain along the historical river.

The first part is about the ancient Britain. The origin of the English history is acknowledged known as the roman invasion of 55BC. It was under the charge of Julius Caesar when the first roman invasion took place, and in AD43, a well-planned and much larger invasion came again. England was influenced by the roman so strongly that even nowadays you can feel that deeply in England. After nearly 400 years, the Roman Empire was tired to manage the issue of England because of the difficulties closer to their country.The Roman

occupation of Britain lasted nearly 400 years with a great impact. They brought Christianity to England, developed a system of well-paved roads etc. But with the aggravation of the slave rebellion, Rome Empire was fading. Thus they finally left Britain by 410 AD to defend Roman.

In mid-5century a new wave of invaders, Jutes, Saxons and Angles came to Britain. In 449, the Jutes led by Hengist arrived and conquered Kent in southeast of England. Afterwards, the others also set up many kingdoms, which were called Heptarchy. In 829 finally Wessex won the overlordship of all the rest and Elbert, the king of Wessex, became the king.

To their safety, Danish Viking raids were a great threat by this time. Therefore, Wessex combined the other kingdoms against the Vikings and then the king of Wessex, Alfred who called Alfred the Great later reached a friendly agreement with the Vikings in 879. Unfortunately, at the beginning of 11 century, Danish made a comeback and successfully dominated the island, and king of Denmark, Knut the Great became king of England. England remained under Danish rule until 1066 thth

when William the Conqueror took back Britain by

defeating the Viking’s last raids.

It was this invasion established the language

which now is known as Old English. After hundreds years later, the king of Wessex, Alfred the great, unified and stabilized the country with his successors.

The second part refers to the feudalism age. The feudalism which based on the land had occurred under the Anglo-Saxon kings, for the purpose of his power consolidation. Before Henry II, the king’s power was limited by the barony and the Church. It was Henry II, who succeeds in reversing the power back from the barony and the Church to the monarchical state.

After that, England virtually became a part of

Normandy France and Feudalism which is a feudal system that was based on the ownership of land, was established. In that way, the king was able to centralize society in his own person. Though the Normandy conquest played a positive role to consolidate the feudal society and determined the whole course of English history and development, it ultimately failed to overcome the royal family. During that time, it broke out three Crusades,

which is a long series of wars between Christians and Muslims.

In June 191215, King John of England was forced to accept a rather crude the Magna carta that was to

protect the interests of the feudal lords. Due to the document the king was declined his regalities and had to gain his income from other methods, mainly by

expansion. It caused the further class contradiction and therefore promoted the establishment of English Parliament. What’s more, in order to gain a stronghold and massive wealth in Europe by conquering France, the Hundred Years War between France and England was bitter, which were a series of sieges and naval battles

interspersed with truces and uneasy peace. The war was started in May 1337 when King Philip Ⅵ of France

attempted to confiscate the English territories in the duchy of Aquitaine. It ended in July 1453 when the France finally expelled the English from the continents ( except for Calais ).

In the late spring of 1348, the Black Death whose causative agent was the Rat Flea arrived in England. It is estimated to have killed 25 million people in two th

or three years, which to some extent, came to an end of the Hundred Years War. Due to the Black Death, the policy become more and more critical to the laborer.

A series of revolts were rising, and the most influence one is Wat Tyler’s revolt. The serf became a free farmer or a wage laborer finally after 1381.

The hundred years’ war, spanned from 1337 to 1453, destroyed the feudal nobility and brought about a new social order and brought the England’s status as a power to an end which led the English to expand their power at sea. Two years later, there was a series of dynastic civil wars for the English throne between the house of Lancaster and York.

In the late spring of 1348, the Black Death whose causative agent was the Rat Flea arrived in England. It is estimated to have killed 25 million people in two or three years, which to some extent, came to an end of the Hundred Years War. Due to the Black Death, the policy become more and more critical to the laborer.

A series of revolts were rising, and the most influence one is Wat Tyler’s revolt. The serf became a free farmer or a wage laborer finally after 1381.

The war of the Roses were a series of civil wars fought in medieval England from 1455 to 1487 between the House of Lancaster and the House of York. After a marriage between the two houses, the Tudor Dynasty was built. English feudal history came to …… 此处隐藏：9210字，全部文档内容请下载后查看。喜欢就下载吧 ……