The invasions, The Middle Ages and the Renaissance, The Tudors, The Stuarts, Oliver Cromwell and the Restoration, The Industrial Revolution, Queen Vic

The Celts migrated to Britain from north-west Germany between 2000 and 1200 BC.

The Celts were organised in tribes, lived in villages and were mainly farmers.

The Romans firs came to Britain under Julius Caesar in 55 BC, but extensive roman colonisation of Britain took place almost one hundred years later under Emperor Claudius in 43 AD. The Romans settled in the south and central parts of the island.

In 122 AD they built a 120 km long wall, called Hadrian's Wall, in honour of Emperor Hadrian, to defend their population from the Celtic tribes.

When the roman legions left Britain in 454 AD, barbarian tribes invaded the country: the Angles, Saxons and Jutes came from Germanic territories while the Vikings came from Scandinavia.

Finally, in 1066 William, Duke of Normandy, crossed the English Channel, defeated Harold, the Saxon King, at the Battle of Hastings, and became king with the name of William I or William the conqueror.

During the middle Ages, in England, the King assumed absolute power.

Many barons rebelled in June 1215 against the Crown and forced King John Lackland to sign a peace treaty accepting their reforms, the Magna Carta,

The Magna Carta limited royal powers, defined feudal obligations between the King and the barons, and guaranteed a number of rights.

The Hundred Years' War was a conflict between France and England, lasting 116 years from 1337 to 1453.

The Wars of the Roses (1455-1485) were a series of civil wars fought over the throne of England between adherents of the House of Lancaster and the House of York. This victory brought the Tudor dynasty to the English throne. Both houses were branches of the tagenet royal house, tracing descent from King Edward III.

The most important representatives of the Tudors were Henry VIII and Elizabeth I.

 

Henry was the second monarch of the House of Tudor, succeeding his father, Henry VII. Henry VIII is famous for having been married six times. He wielded perhaps the most formidable power of any English monarch and brought about the English Reformation (including the creation of the Church of England as well as the Dissolution of the Monasteries) and the legal union of England and Wales.

Also Henry decided to abolish papal power in England and under the Act of Supremacy in 1534, he declared himself Head of the Church of England.

Elizabeth I, the daughter of Henry VIII, she was born a princess, but her mother, Anne Boleyn, was executed three years after her birth, and Elizabeth was declared illegitimate.

The reign of Queen Elizabeth I is often referred to as The Golden Age of English history.

She is still one of the best loved monarchs.

During her reign, England built up its naval power, defeated the Spanish Invincible Armada in 1588 and founded colonies in America.

When the Elizabeth I died, the crown passed to James I of Scotland who united the English and Scottish crown and was known as James VI.

His son, Charles I was famously engaged in a struggle for power with the Parliament of England. He was an advocate of the Divine Right of Kings, and many in England feared that he was attempting to gain absolute power. Parliament was dominated by a group of strict Protestants, known as Puritans, under the leadership of Oliver Cromwell. Oliver Cromwell and the Puritans won, and after the execution of King Charles I in 1649, Cromwell dominated the short-lived Commonwealth of England, conquered Ireland and Scotland.

After the Cromwell's Dead, Charles II took his power.

In 1666 a huge fire destroying much of the centre of London.

The city was redesigned by Sir Christopher Wren.

Towards the end of the 18th century a real economic revolution took place in England.

The process was very important and protrudes by great technical progress and improvements of agricultural and industrial methods. Steam power was used for the first time, new machines were invented such as the spinning-jenny, the production of iron and steel greatly increased making the industry development begun.

England became a manufacturing country, capitalism began to enlarge, and a new class of

Industrial workers appeared.

Many factories were built in the areas that produced coal and iron. People no longer worked in their

own homes.The industrial revolution is one of the most important events in English history.

Queen Victoria was queen of Great Britain and Ireland she succeeded WILLIAM IV.

During the Victorian Era new inventions were developed including the telephone, the electric light and the radio.

Education was obligatory from the age of five to twelve thanks to the Education Act.

Trade Unions were also set up to protect workers and improve their pay and working conditions.

The sixty years of Victoria's reign were also the years of great colonial expansion.

The British Empire made possible the wealth increment brought by industrialisation.