- •Part I Britain’s prehistory
- •Mysterious stonehenge
- •Early britain. The celtic tribes
- •Celtic Mythology
- •The Primitive Communal System
- •The Celtic Language Today
- •The roman conquest of britain
- •Roman Influence in Britain
- •Traces of the Roman Rule in Britain
- •The anglo-saxon conquest of britain
- •The Fall of the Roman Empire
- •Part II The Middle Ages.
- •The coming of christianity
- •Unification of the Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms
- •Terror of the norsemen
- •Alfred the great
- •Alfred's successors
- •The power of the church
- •Rough justice
- •Paying off the dane
- •Norman England the imposition of norman rule
- •The feudal system
- •Maintaining the grip on power
- •Heroes and historians
- •Part III
- •King john and magna carta
- •The reign of henry III
- •The duties of the king and the power of the law
- •A State Built on Wool welsh annexation and scottish resistance
- •An emerging parliament
- •Friends, favourites – and murder
- •Edward III: a military king
- •The black death
- •The changing face of england
- •Chaucer’s england
- •France gained and lost
- •The wars of the roses
- •Tudor England the house of tudor
- •Renaissance in england
- •In north-west Europe
- •Defender of the faith and destroyer of the monasteries
- •Mary I and catholic resurgence
- •Concord and compromise
- •No weak and feeble woman
- •An age of discovery
- •Management and control
- •Mary, queen of scots
- •Threats from abroad and threats at home
- •The last years of elizabeth
- •Stuart England: Civil War and Commonwealth the stuart dynasty
- •Shakespeare and english culture
- •Stuart England: Civil War and Commonwealth
- •Trouble from abroad
- •Charles I: religious divisions and conflict with parliament
- •Scotland revolts
- •Parliament gains the upper hand
- •The civil wars
- •Parliament divided: the army gains control
- •England loses a king – and becomes a commonwealth
- •England under the commonwealth
- •The restoration of the monarchy
- •Part IV
- •18Th century Britain (Development of political institutions.
- •19Th century Britain. (The growth of the British Empire.
- •War with the american colonists
- •A strong and proud nation
- •Late summer, bank holiday
- •Victorian england the class structure
- •Work, trades and professions
- •The education gap
- •The chartist movement and the anti-corn law league
- •The penny post
- •Education for all
- •The franchise and the trade unions
- •The birth of labour and the women’s suffrage movement
- •The new money-makers
- •The conduct of the war
- •A nation of consumers
- •The failure of appeasement
- •World war II
Scotland revolts
The unravelling of Charles I's royal autocracy began in an unexpected place. Charles mustered an army to restore the Scots to discipline. The Scots mustered an army that was altogether more formidable than the ill-trained royal levies, and a peace was patched up, though it was plainly not going to last. The Scottish army, encamped in the north and subsidised at £850 a day, was the guarantor that the parliament would not be dissolved by royal order. Names that would soon ring out on battlefields participated in its work, including the quiet but influential member for Huntingdon, Oliver Cromwell.
Parliament gains the upper hand
In October 1641, news of a rebellion in Ireland, under Catholic leadership, brought anti-Catholic feeling to new heights, whipped on by hysterical speeches and propaganda. This artificial climate of suspicion and tension endured into 1642, while attitudes hardened both on the religious and political issues. Perhaps in anticipation of attempts to impeach the queen, Charles's attorney-general impeached five members of the Commons and one peer, and on 4 January, with a large force of soldiers, the king came himself to the House of Commons to arrest them. Forewarned, they had taken refuge in London, which became almost on the instant an openly insurgent city The king left for the north, where he would still find loyal support.
In April he was refused entry to the city of Hull, where an arsenal of weapons was stored. Opposing authorities were now publicly asserted. Parliament set about raising a militia. Bу July, opposing bands of royalist and parliamentary supporters were already fighting. On 20 August, at Nottingham, the king raised his standard and called on all who supported him to join the ranks. With both sides protesting that they were defending England's ancient rights, laws and customs, the Civil Wars began.
The civil wars
Beginning as a constitutional war, exacerbated by religious dispute, its ending was dominated by struggles between different religious factions. At the start, the royalists' great asset was the king himself. He was still king of the whole nation and could command a strong traditional loyalty across the population. The royalist troops based in Oxford gained an ugly reputation for looting. Most of the nobility rallied to the king, and he had strong support in the West Country and the north. From his headquarters at Oxford, Charles still commanded a great swathe of the country. A 'self-denying ordinance' forbade members of parliament also to be commanders in the field. By irresistible demand from the ranks of the army, one exception was made to this: the Lieutenant General of Cavalry, Oliver Cromwell. Parliament's 'new model' army, with Fairfax as general and Cromwell as his deputy, was paid, trained, disciplined, and instilled, from its leaders down, with a will to win. 'Ironsides' was Rupert's nickname for Cromwell; it soon spread to his troopers. On 14 June 1645, with Charles I leading his troops, the royal army suffered a decisive defeat at Naseby. A push to the west followed and the royalists of Cornwall surrendered in March 1646. As the parliamentary forces set about besieging Oxford, the king slipped out and in April gave himself up to the Scottish army which was encamped at Newark.