- •2. Celtic Britain.
- •5. The Danes.
- •6. Norman Conquest of England.
- •7. Medieval England.
- •10. The Growth of Empire and Eighteenth-Century Political Developments.
- •14. World War II and the welfare state.
- •Victorian London
- •20Th century London
- •2. The Tudors - Henry VII, Henry VIII, Mary & Elizabeth
- •1. Henry VI (1422-61, 1470-71 ad)
- •3. Edward IV (1461-70, 1471-83 ad)
- •4. Charles II, James II , William III and Anne
- •10. Edward VIII
- •11. George VI
- •12. The British Parliament
- •2. Sculpture.
- •3. Music.
- •4. Pop music.
- •1. British grand manner portraits of the 1700s.
- •2. British history paintings of the 1700s.
- •3. Britain's Royal Academy of Art in the late 1700s and early 1800s.
- •4. British conversation pieces and portraits of the 1700s.
- •5. Constable and Turner - British landscapes of the early 1800s.
- •2. English Baroque Architecture.
- •3. The Middle Ages - 1066 and all that.
- •4. Buildings of the Middle Ages.
- •7. Styles of the 17th century - a world turned upside down.
- •8. Buildings of the 17th century.
- •9. Styles of the 18th century - rules cramp the genius.
- •10. Buildings of the 18th century.
- •11. Gothic Revival Architecture.
- •13. Victorian buildings.
- •14. Styles of the 20th century - conservatism and change.
- •15. Buildings of the 20th century.
5. The Danes.
Late in the 8th cent., and with increasing severity until the middle of the 9th cent., raiding Vikings (known in English history as Danes) harassed coastal England and finally, in 865, launched a full-scale invasion. They were first effectively checked by King Alfred of Wessex and were with great difficulty confined to the Danelaw, where their leaders divided land among the soldiers for settlement. Alfred's successors conquered the Danelaw to form a united England, but new Danish invasions late in the 10th cent. overcame ineffective resistance. The Dane Canute ruled all England by 1016. At the expiration of the Scandinavian line in 1042, the Wessex dynasty in the face of Edward the Confessor regained the throne. He spent so much time on religious work that later he failed to carry out his royal duties. As a result, the nobles increased their hold on the country. Edward approached old age without a son to succeed him. In the interests of continuity he was expected to name an heir. The two chief candidates were Harold Godwinson, a prominent earl, and William, Duke of Normandy. There is no sign that Edward had actually promised the throne to William. Harold made a better choice politically within the realm. There is a story that Harold had sworn an oath, which he later claimed was taken under duress, to defer in favour of William. However it may have happened, Edward named Harold as his heir.
6. Norman Conquest of England.
Edward died on January 5,1066. On the same day Harold was crowned king in Westminster Abbey. But William did not agree with such course of events. So he led an army of 5000 Norman archers and knights across the sea to England. They met Harold’s army in battle near Hastings, a town on the southern coast of England. By nightfall of October, 14th, the English were defeated. On Christmas Day, William, known as William the Conqueror, was crowned King of England in Westminster Abbey, in London. The conquest of England in 1066 by William, duke of Normandy (William I of England), ended the Anglo-Saxon period. Under William’s rule, the English people learned Norman customs, the French language; they built castles, cathedrals and monasteries in the French style. The freeman (ceorl) of the early Germanic invaders had been responsible to the king and superior to the serf. Subsequent centuries of war and subsistence farming, however, had forced the majority of freemen into serfdom, or dependence on the aristocracy of lords and thanes, who came to enjoy a large measure of autonomous control over manors granted them by the king. The central government evolved from tribal chieftainships to become a monarchy in which executive and judicial powers were usually vested in the king. The aristocracy made up his witan, or council of advisers. The king set up shires as units of local government ruled by earldormen. In some instances these earldormen became powerful hereditary earls, ruling several shires. Subdivisions of shires were called hundreds. There were shire and hundred courts, the former headed by sheriffs, the latter by reeves. Agriculture was the principal industry, but the Danes were aggressive traders, and towns increased in importance starting in the 9th cent.
King Harold’s death