AN ILLU STRATEDHISTORY OF- -BRITAIN

David McDowall

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British Libra ry Catalogui ng in Publication DataMcDowall , David

An illu strated hist ory of Bri tain .1. Great Britain-Hi stor y1.Title941 DA3 0

ISBN-H 978-0-5B2-74914-6ISBN-1O, 0-5B2-74914-X

Set in 11/ 13 pt Goudy Old Style

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Penguin Books Ltd for permission to reprod uce anextract from TheCanterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer, translated byNevd l Coghtll [Pen guin C1a5sics, 1951, 1958, 1960) , copyright (c)Nevill Co ghill, 1951, 1958, 1960.

We are gratefu l to the following for permission to reproduce copyrightpho tographs:Aerofilm s for page 6 (left ) and 24 (to p left ). Bama by's Picture Libraryfor page 170 and 176 (bo tto m); BBC Hulton Picture Library (o r pages141, 144, 151, 154, 163 and 165; Bibliothequc Royale A lben lcr,Brussels (Ms 13076177 fo 24v) for page 47; Bodle ian Library, O xford(Ms Bodley 764 f 41v) for page 38 (right ); [aner and Colin Bord forpage 4; The Bridgeman Art Lihr<l ry/Briti sh Museum , London for page98 ; The Bridgcman Ar t Librarv/T lchbome Park, Hampshire forpages 102-103 and The Bridgcman An Library/Victoria and AlbenMuseum for page 78; C ity of Bristol Museum and An Ga llery for page106; Britain on View for pages 20 and 70; British Library for pages 14,22.24 (bottom right ), 27, 42, 46, 50, 57, 60, 64, 75 and 146;Tru stees of th e Brit ish Museum for pages 3, 5. 7, 12 and 9 1; Ca meraPress London for pages 175. 179 and 183 (Alben Wa tso n); J. AllanCa sh Photohb rarv for page 178; The Governi ng Body of ChristC hurch , Oxfo rd for pages 45 and 62; Chnsne's fo r page 139 (top) ;City Co unci l of Bnsro l and City of Bristo l Record Office - 04720( I )for page 59; Co urtesy of the Library of Co ngress for page 112;Presidents and Fellows of Corpus C hristi College. Oxfo rd for page 38(top and bottom left) ; C rown copyright, published by permission ofthe Ministry of Defense and of th e Co ntroller of Her Majesty'sStat ionery Office/Cambridgc Univ ersity Collection for 'page 117.Courtesy of the Dean and C hapter of Wesrminstcr for page 33; ln theCollection of th e Duke of Buccleuch and Q ueensherrv, K.T . for page92; Stanley Gibbons (or page l3 5 (left ); TheG uardian for page 96;Copyright reserved. Reproduced by gracio us permission of Her Majestythe Queen for pages 86, I I1 and 135 (r ight ); Royal Co mmission onthe Historical Monuments of England for page 24 (top right); MichaelHolford fo r page 17; Illustrat ed Londo n News Picture Library (o r page148; Imperial War Museum for page 160; A.F. Kerst ing for pages 31.41. 58. 65 and 81; Lambeth Palace Library for page 54; Linen HallLibrary, Belfast for page 122 (to p) ; Llovd's of London for page 104;Londo n Dock lands Develop ment Corporat ion for page 181; Londo nT ransport Museum Pho togra phic Archive for page 158· Manc hesterCity Art G aller ies for page 137: Mansel l Co llect ion for' pages 90, 98,

115 ( left), 127 (top), 136 and 140: The Marque ss of Bath, Lo ngleatHouse , Warm inster , Wiltshi re for page 83; The Marqucss of Sa lisburyfor page 82; The Marquess of Tavurock and the T rustees of theBedford Estates, Woburn Abbey for page 74; Marvlebon e Cnckcr Clubfor page 153; Kcnnerh McNally for page 19: Museum of London forpage 142. Directo r of th e Nat ional Ar my Museum, Chelsea, Londonfor page 147; Natio nal Ga llery of Canada, Ottawa for page 124.Reproduced by courtesy of the T rusrees. Na tional Gallery, London forpage 115 (right) and 119; Na tio nal Library of Ireland, LawrenceCollection 11566 for page 150; The Nationa l Mannme Museu mLondon for pages 66 and 126- 7 (bottom); National Portrai t G alieryfor pages 51. 53, 67 , 68,71. 87, 94 and 139 (bottom); The NationalTrust Photographic Library for page 130; No rth Yorkshire Cou nrvLibrary for page 152; PoppcrfOto for page 167. DavidRedfem for page171; Or P.J. Revnolds for page 6 [right} ; T rustees of thc ScienceMuseum, London for page lOO. Sheffield C ity Librar ics for page 133;Shel l for page 176 (top); The Board of T rinity Co llege, Duhl in forpage 19; To ny Sto ne Pbo roltbrarv -. London for page 2: UnlversuvMuseum of Na t ional Antiqu ities, Oslo, No rway for page 16; Board ofT rustees of the Victoria and A lbert Museum for pages 101 and 110;T he Vic toria Art Gallery. Bath City Cou nci l for page 116; WalesTourist Board for page 52; Walker Art Ga llery, Liverpoo l for page 122(bo tto m); Weald and Downland Open Air Museum, Si ngleto n,Chichester , Wc st Sussex for pale 63.; West Stow A nglo-Saxon Vil lage[rust fo r page 13; Wmdsor Cast e, Royal LIbrary © Her MaJcsty theQ ueen for page 30; WooclmaosternelMuscum of London for page 10.

Cover photographs by: Bodl~ian Li.brary, O xford (Ms Bodley 764 f .41v] (top righ t}; A.F . Kersnn g (middle left ); The Marquess ofTavisrock and the T rustees of the Bedford Estate s, Woburn Ab bey(middle right ) ; The Natio nal Marit ime Museum , London (m iddle top& bot tom righ t); N ational Portrait G allery, London (top left ) ;Popperfoto (bo tto m left ); T on y S tone Photolibra ry-London for thebackground .

Pict ure Research by Sand ra Assersoh n

ContentsEarliest times

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

The foundation stonesThe island' Britain 's prehi story' The Celts· The Romans' Roman life

The Saxon invasionThe invaders ' Governme nt and society' C hristianity: the partne rship of C hurchand state ' The Vikings ' W ho sho uld be king?

The Celtic kingdomsWales ' Ireland ' Scotl and

3

11

18

The early Middle Ages

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Conquest and feudal ruleT he Norman Conquest· Feudalism . Kingship: a famil y busine ss' Magna Cartaand the decline of feudalism

The power of the kings of Eng landChurch and state ' T he beginn ings of Parliament· Dealin g with the Celts

Government and societyT he growth of government · Law and just ice' Religious beliefs· Ordina ry peoplein country and town' The growth of towns as centres of wealth : Language,literature and culture

23

29

34

The late Middle Ages

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

The century of war , plague and disorderWar with Scotl and and France' The age of ch ivalry ' The century of plagues 'The poor in revolt· Heresy and orthodoxy

The crisis of kings and nob lesT he cr isis of kingship ' Wa les in revolt· The struggle in France ' The Wa rs of theRoses . Sco tla nd

Government and societyGover nment and socie ty ' The co ndition of women · Language and culture

43

51

57

The Tudors

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Cha pter 12

The birth of the nation sta teT he new monarch y ' The Reformation' The Protestant- Catholic struggle

England and her neighbo ursT he new fore ign policy ' The new tradin g empire ' Wales' Ireland · Sco tland andEngland' Mary Q ueen of Scots and the Sco tt ish Reformation ' A Scottish king forEngland

Government and societyTudor parliaments' Rich and poor in town and count ry' Domestic life'Language and culture

67

73

79

The Stuarts

Chapter 13

Chapt er 14

Chapter 15

Crown and ParliamentParliament against the C rown ' Religious disagreemen t· C ivil war

Republican and Restoration BritainRepublican Britain ' Catho licism, the C rown and th e new const itut iona lmonarchy ' Sco tland and Ireland' Foreign relations

Life and th oughtT he revolut ion in thought · Life and work in the Stuart age' Family life

87

92

98

The eighteenth century

Cha pte r 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

T he political worldPolit ics and fi na nce ' W ilkes and libert y · Radicalism and the loss of the Americancolon ies' Ireland ' Sco tland

Life in town and countryTown life' The rich· The countrys ide' Family life

T he years of revolutionIndustri al revoluri on . Soc iety and religion ' Revolu tion in France and theNa poleonic W ars

107

114

121

The nineteenth century

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

The years of power and dangerThe danger at home, 1815- 32 . Reform ' Workers revo lt · Family life

The years of self-confidenceT he railway ' The rise of th e middle classes ' The growth of towns and cities'Popul ation and politi cs ' Q ueen and monarchy· Q ueen an d emp ire' Wa les,Sco tland and Ireland

The end of an ageSoc ial and economic improvemen ts ' The importance of sport· Cha nges inth inking' T he end of "England's summer" . The storm clouds of war

131

138

151

The twentieth century

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Britain at warThe First W orld W ar ' The rise of the Labour Party ' The rights ofwomen' Ireland' Disappointmen t and depression ' The Second World War

The age of uncertaintyThe new international order' The welfare state ' Yout hful Britain ' A popularmon archy ' The loss of empire ' Britain, Europe and the Uni ted States' NorthernIreland . Scotland and W ales ' The years of disconten t · The new polit ics 'Britain : past , presen t and future

159

168

Author's acknowledgement

I could not possibly have written rhis brief account of Britain 's historywi thout cons iderable he lp from a number of other books. Notable among theseare the following:

Maurice Ash ley: The People of England (Weidenfeld and N icolson 1982)Maurice Ashley: England in the Seventeenth Century (Pen guin 1961)S.T. Bindoff: T udor England (Penguin 1965)Asa Briggs: A Social History of England (We idenfeld and Nicolson 1983)Valerie Cha nce llor: Medieval and Tudor Britain (Penguin 1967)Dorothy George: England in Transition (Penguin 1962)J.O. Mackie : A History of Scotland (Penguin 1984)K.O. Morgan (ed.) . The Oxford Illustrated History of Britain (Oxford University

Press 1984)A.L. Morton : A People's History of England (Lawrence and Wishart 1984)Maire and Conor C ruise O 'Brien: A Concise History of Ireland (Thames and

Hudson 1972 )A.J. Patrick: The Making of a Nation, 1603-1 789 (Penguin 1982)J.H. Plumb: England in the Eighteenth Century (Penguin 1966)M.M. Postan: The Medieval Economy and Society (Weidenfeld and N icolson 1972)Jasper Ridley: The History of England (Rout ledge and Kegan Paul 1981)AIan Sked and Chris Cook: Post-War Britain (Peng uin 1984)O.M. Stenton: English Society in the Early Middle Ages (Pen guin 1967)Lawrence Stone: The Family, Sex and Marriage in England 1500- 1800 (Weidenfeld and

Nicolson 1977)David Thomson : England in the Nineteenth Century (Penguin 1970)David Thomson : England in the Twentieth Century (Penguin 1983)G.M. Treve lyan: A Shortened History of England (Penguin 1983)Gwynn W illiams: When was Wales! (Pen guin 1985)

I owe an ent irely different kind of debt to my wife, Elizabeth. She not onlypersuaded me to write this book, but in man y places suggested an eleganc eand clarity quite beyond my own abiliry. To her , th en, I ded icate the end-product,with my love and tha nks.

Earliest times1 The foundation stones

The island· Britain's prehistory' The C elts ' The Romans' Roman life

The islandHowever complicated the modern industrial statemay be, land and climate affect life in eve rycountry. They affect social and econom ic life,population and even polit ics. Britain is noexcept ion . It has a milder cl imate than much of theEuropean mainland because it lies in the way of theGulf Stream, which brings warm water and windsfrom the G ulf of Mexico. Within Britain there aredifferences of climate between north and south ,east and west. T he north is on average 5°C coo lerthan the south. Annual rainfa ll in the east is onaverage about 600 mm, while in man y parts of thewest it is more than double tha t. The countryside isvaried also. The north and west are mountainous orhilly. Much of the south and east is fairly fl at , orlow-lying. This means that the south and east onthe who le have bette r agricultural conditions, andit is possible to harvest crops in early August , twomonths earlier than in the no rth. So it is notsurprising that southeast Brita in has always beenthe most popu lated parr of the island. For thisreason it has always had th e most poli tical power.

Britain is an island, and Brita in's history has beenclosely connected with the sea . Until modern t imesit was as easy to travel across water as it was acrossland , whe re roads were frequently unusable. Atmoments of great danger Britain has been savedfrom danger by its surrounding seas. Britain 'shistory and its strong national sense have beenshaped by the sea.

Stonehenge is lhe mml JxlU-'eT{ul mllnlnnem of Britain's prehistory. Irspurpose is sriII nOf prfJpnly undeTS food. These who built Swnehenge knew!lOH' to CIl I and m ot't' t't'ry large pieces of stone, andplace horiZlmcal stonebeams across the upright pi/lars. They also Iuul [he authority fa conrrol large:numbersof workers, and to fetch some of fhe stone from diswnr parts ofWales.

Britain's prehistoryBritain has not always been an island . It becameone only afte r the end of the last ice age. T hetempera ture rose and the ice cap melted , floodingthe lower-lying land tha t is now und er the No rthSea and the English C hanne l.

The Ice Age was not just one long equally co ldperiod. Th ere were warmer times when the ice capretreated, and colder periods when th e ice capreach ed as far south as the River Thames. O ur firstevidence of hum an life is a few stone tools, datingfrom one of the warmer periods, about 250, 000 BC .

These simple objects show th at there were twodifferent kinds of inhabitant. The earlier groupmade the ir too ls from flakes of flint , similar in kindto stone tools found across the north Europeanplain as far as Russia. The ot her group made too lsfrom a central core of flint , probably the earliestmethod of hu man too l makin g, wh ich spread from

A hand axe, rJ1l.u1e fromflint, foundaf Swanscombe in norrh Kent.

3

A n Illustrated History of Britain

Africa to Europe . Hand axes made in thi s way ha vebeen found widely, as far north as Yorkshire and asfar west as Wal es.

However, the ice advanced again and Britainbecame hardly habit able until another milderperiod , probably around 50 ,000 BC. During thi st ime a new type of human bein g seems ro havearriv ed, who was the ancestor of the modernBritish . T hese people looked similar to rhe mode rnBritish, but were probably smaller and had a lifespan of on ly about th irty years.

Around 10, 000 BC, as the Ice Age drew to a close,Britain was peop led by small groups of hunters,gatherers and fis hers. Few had settled homes, andth ey seemed to have followed herds of deer whichprovided them with food and clothing. By about5000 BC Britain had finally become an island,and had also beco me hea vily forested . For thewanderer-hunter culture this was a disaster, for [hecold- loving deer and other an imals on which theylived largely died out.

About 3000 BC Neolith ic (or New Stone Age )peopl e crossed the narrow sea from Europe in smallround boats of bent wood covered with an imalskins. Each could carry one or two persons. Thesepeople kept an imals and grew corn crops, and knew

how to make pottery, They probably came fromeithe r the Iberian (Spani sh) peninsula or even theNorth African coast. They were small, dark , andlong-headed people , and may be the forefathers ofdark-ha ired inhabitants of Wal es and Cornwalltoday. They settled in the western parts of Britainand Ireland, from Cornwa ll at the southwest end ofBritain all the way to the far north .

These were the first of several waves of invadersbefore the first arrival of the Romans in 55 BC. Itused to be though t that these waves of invadersmarked fresh srages in British development. How­eve r, alrhough rhey must have brought new ideasand methods, it is now thought th at th e changingpattern of Britain 's prehistory was the result of localecono mic and social forces.

The great "public works" of th is tim e, whichneeded a huge organ isat ion of labour, reil us a littleof how preh istoric Brirain was developing. Theearlier of these works were great "barrows", orburial mounds, made of earth or stone. Most ofthese barrows are found on the cha lk uplands ofsouth Brita in. To day th ese uplands have poor soiland few trees, but they were not like tha t then .T hey were airy woodlands th at could easily becleared for farming, and as a result were the most

4

There were Stone Age sites fromone end of Britain to {he other.This stone hId, at Skara Brae,Orkney, off the northcoast ofSCOlland, wasswlJenly coveredby a sandstorm before 2000 BC.

Unlikesouthernsites, wherewood was used which hill sincerotted, Skara Brae is allstone.and the stone furnilure is stillthere. Behind the firepillCe(bottom left) there arestorageshelves against the back wall. Onthe riRht is probably a stone sidedbed, in which rushes err heatherwere placed forwarmth.

easily habitable part of th e countryside. Eventually,and ove r a very long period, these areas becameoverfarmed, whi le by 1400 BC the climate becamedrier, and as a result this land co uld no longersupport many peop le. It is d ifficult today to imaginethese areas, part icu larly the uplands of Wiltshireand Dorset , as heavily peop led areas.

Yet the monuments remain . After 3000 BC th echa lkland peopl e started building great circles ofearth banks and dit ches. Inside, they built woodenbuild ings and stone circles. These "henges", as theyare called, were cen tres of religious, polit ica l andeconomic power. By far th e most spectacular, boththen and now, was Stonehenge, wh ich was builtin separate stages over a period of more than athousand years. The precise purposes of Stonehengeremain a mystery, but during th e seco nd phase ofbuild ing, after about 2400 BC, hu ge blueston es werebrought to th e site from south W ales. This couldonly have been ach ieved because th e politicalauthority of th e area surrounding Stonehe nge wasrecogni sed over a very large area, indeed probablyover the whole of the British Isles. T he movementof these bluestones was an extremely importantevent, the sto ry of which was passed on fromgene rat ion to gene ration. Three th ousand yea rslater, these unwritten memories were recorded inGeoffrey of Monrnourh's History of Britain, writtenin 1136 .

Stonehenge was almost certainly a sort of capital,to which th e chiefs of othe r groups came from allover Britain. Certainly, earth or stone hen ges werebuilt in many part s of Brita in, as far as the O rkneyIslands north of Sco tla nd, and as far south asCorn wall. They seem to have been copies of th egreat Sto nehenge in the south. In Ireland thecen tre of prehistoric c ivilisation grew around theRiver Boyne and at T ara in U lster. The importan ceof these place s in folk mem ory far outlasted thebuilders of the monuments.

After 2400 BC new groups of peop le arrived insoutheast Britain from Europe . T he y were round­headed and strongly built, taller than NeolithicBritons. It is not known whether they invaded byarmed force, or whether they were invited by

1 The foundation stones

~titf~~'· :f''''

, ~Ir~:~l.',o....IIi.........._ ......:.iiiilBAl· ~~~- ~

The grat'f~ of one of lht: "Beakt:r" peoplt:. al Bamack. CambriJReshiTe.dlxml /800 BC. It conwins a fineb Jecoraud POtlery be(tker anda copperorbf"(m~e daggcr. Borh itemsdistinguisht..>J lhe Beaker peoplt: fnnn llu: t:aTlicrinh.wilanf.S. This ~dt'e «'ill llu: nwin bUr"k1l pku:e benRtlm one of a groupof"bcmxcs". or burial mOlmas.

Neolirh ic Briton s beca use of th eir mil itary or met al­work ing skills. Their in fl uence was soon felt and, asa result, they became leaders of Brit ish soc iety.Their arrival is marked by the first ind ividualgraves, furni shed with pottery beakers, from whichth ese peopl e get th eir name: the "Beaker" people.

Why did people now dec ide to be buried separatelyand give up th e old communa l burial barrows? It isdi ffi cul t to be ce rtai n, but it is tho ught that the oldbarr ows were built partly to please th e gods of thesoil, in the hope that th is would stop the chalkupland soil gett ing poorer. T he Beaker peoplebrought with th em from Europe a new cerea l,barley , which co uld grow almost anywhe re. Perh apsthey fel t it was no longer necessary to please th egods of the cha lk upland soil.

5

An Illustrated History of Britain

Maiden Ccsde. Dorset, is oneof thelargesrCeltic hiU·farrsof the early lr071 Age. Ics strength can stiUbedean)' seen.butet'fi'l these forTifications were no defence againstdisciplined Roman troops.

T he Beaker people prob ably spoke an Indo­European language . They seem to have brought asingle culture to the who le of Britain. They alsobrought skills to make bronze too ls and th ese beganto replace stone ones. But th ey acce pte d man y ofthe old ways. Stonehenge remained th e mostimportant cen tre until 1300 BC. The Beakerpeop le's richest graves were the re, and they added anew circle of thirty sto ne co lumns , this timeco nnec ted by stone lintels, or cross-pieces. Britishsocie ty continued to be centred on a number ofhenges across the countryside.

However, from about 1300 BC onwards th e hengecivilisation seems to have become less important ,and was overtaken by a new form of society insouthern England, that of a settled farming class.At first thi s farming society developed in order tofeed the peop le at the henges, but eventually itbecame more important and powerful as it grewricher. T he new farmers grew wealthy beca use th eylearn ed to enr ich the soil with natural wastemate rials so that it did not become poor anduseless. This change probably happened at aboutth e same time th at the ch alk uplands werebecoming drier. Famil y villages and fort ifiedenclosures appeared across the land scape, in lower­lying areas as well as on th e chalk hills, and th e oldcentral control of Stonehenge and th e othe r hengeswas lost .

6

A reconstructed lr071 Age fann. Farms like this were established in southeasl Britainfram about 700 ec O71wards. This may haw been rhe main or even 0711)' building; largtroundhurs increasingly tookthe plau of smaller ones. ''ThRir houses are large. round.built of planks anduiekeruurk. theroof beinga dome oflMlCh, .. wr ote the Greekphilosopher Srrabo. In men ofCeltic Europe hws were square.

From thi s time, too, power seems to have shifted toth e Thames valley and southeas t Brita in . Except forshort periods, poli t ical and econo mic power hasremained in the southeast ever since. Hi ll-fortsrep laced henges as the centres of local power, andmost of these were found in the southeast,suggest ing that the land successfully suppor ted morepeopl e here th an elsewhere.

There was another reason for the sh ift of powereastwards. A number of better-designed bronzeswords have been found in the Thames valley,suggesting th at the local people had more adva ncedmetalworking skills. Man y of these swords havebeen found in river beds, almost certain ly thrownin for religious reasons. This custom may be theor igin of the sto ry of th e legendary King Arrhur'ssword , which was given to h im from out of th ewater and wh ich was thrown back into th e wate rwhen he died.

The CeltsAround 700 BC, ano ther group of people began toarrive. Many of them were tall, and had fair or redhair and blue eyes. These were the Celts, whoprob ably came from central Europe or furthe r eas t ,from southern Russia, and had moved slowlywestwards in earlier centuries. The Celts weretechnically advanced. They knew how to work with

iron, and co uld make better weapon s than thepeople who used bronze. It is possible th at theydrove many of the o lder inh abitants westwards intoW"les, Scot land and Ireland. T he Celts began tocontrol "11 the lowland areas of Britain, and werejoined bv new arrivals from the European mainl and.They continued to arrive in one wave after anotherover the next seven hundred years.

The Celts are important in British history becausethey "re the ances tors of many of the peop le inHighland Scot land. W" les, Ireland, and Cornwalltoday. The Iberian peop le of W" ]es and Cornwallrook on the new Cel tic culture. Cel tic languages,which have been continuously used in some areassince that time, "re still spoken . T he British today"re often described as Anglo-Saxon. It would hebetter to ca ll them A nglo-Celr.

Our knowledge of the Celts is sligh t. As withprevious groups of settlers, we do not eve n know forcertain whether the Celts invaded Britain or camepeacefullv as a result of the lively trade with Europefron, "hour 750 ne onwards, At first most of Celt icBritain seems to have developed in a generallysimilar way. But from about 500 ne trade contactwith Europe declined , and regiona l differencesbetween northw est and southeast Britain increased.The Cel ts were organised int o different tribes, andtribal ch iefs were chosen from each family or tribe ,sometimes as the result of fighting match es betweenindividuals, and sometimes bv elect ion .

The last Celtic arrivals from Europe were the Belgictribes. It was natural for th em to settle in thesoutheas t of Britain , probably pushing othe r Ce ltictribes northwards as they did so. Ar any rate , when[ulius Caesar briefl y visited Britain in 55 IlC he sawthat the Belgic tri bes were different from the olderinhabitant s. "The interior is inhabited", he wrote ,"by peop les who consider themse lves ind igenous,the coast by peop le who have crossed fromBelgium. Nearly " 11 of these still keep the names ofthe [European] tribes from which they came."

The Celt ic tr ibes continued the same kind ofagriculture as th e Bronze Age peop le before them .But their use of iron technology and their

1 The foundat ion sto nes

TheSwnu1ckrum.e lT1lUk ShOtllS rhe j ine Ilrrisric workof Cc/ric mew.!workenin.wow AD 50. Thesimple fines mul lack uf derail Ml'e 11 t'CT) ptJU'crfulcffCCl .

int roduction of more advanced plough ing methodsmade it possible for them to farm heavier soils.However, they continued ro use, and build, hill ­forts. T he increase of these, part icularly in thesoutheast, suggests that the Ce lts were highl ysuccessful farmers, growing eno ugh food for a muchlarger populat ion.

The hill -fort remained the centre for local groups.The insides of these hill -forts were fi lled withhouses, and they becam e the simple economiccapita ls and smaller "towns" of the different tribalareas into which Britain was now divided. Toda ythe empty hill -forts stand on lonel y hill tops. Yetthey remained local economic centres long after theRomans ca me to Britain , and long after they went.

7

An Illustrated History of Britain

Within living memory certain annual fairs wereassocia ted with hill -forts. For example, there was anannual September fair on the site of a Dorset hill­fort, which was used by the write r T homas Hardy inhis novel Far from the Madding Crowd, published in1874.

The Celts traded across tribal borde rs and trade wasprobably importan t for political and social contactbetween th e tribes. Trade with Ireland wentthrough the island of Anglesey. The two main tradeoutle ts eastwards to Europe were the settlementsalong the T hames River in the south and on theFirth of Forth in the north . It is no acc ident thatthe presen t-day cap ita ls of England and Sco tlandstand on or near these two ancient trade centres.Much trade, both inside and beyond Britain , wasconducted by river and sea. For money the Celtsused iron bars, until they began to copy the Romancoins they saw used in Gaul (France) .

According to the Romans, the Celtic men woresh irts and breeches (knee-length trousers), andstr iped or chec ked cloaks fastened by a pin . It ispossible that the Scott ish tar tan and dressdeveloped from th is "str iped cloak". The Celts werealso "very careful about cleanl iness and neatness" ,as one Roman wrote. "Neither man nor woman,"he went on, "howeve r poor, was seen either raggedor dirt y."

T he Ce ltic tribes were ruled ove r by a warrior class,of which the priests, or Druids, seem to have beenparti cularly important members. These Druidscould not read or write, but they memorised all thereligious teachi ngs, the tribal laws, history,med icine and ot her knowledge necessary in Celt icsociety. The Dru ids from different tribes all overBritain probab ly met once a year. They had notemples, but they met in sacred groves of trees, oncertain hills, by rivers or by river sources. We knowlittl e of their kind of worship except that at times itincluded human sacrifice.

During the Celtic period women may have hadmore independence than they had again forhundreds of years. When the Romans invadedBritain two of the largest tribes were ruled bywome n who fought from their cha riots. T he most

8

powerful Celt to stand up to the Romans was awoman , Boadicea. She had beco me queen of hertribe when her husband had died. She was tall,with long red hair, and had a frighten ingappearance. In AD 6 1 she led her tribe against theRomans. She nearly drove the m from Britain, andshe destroyed London, the Roman capital, beforeshe was defeat ed and killed. Roman writerscomme nted on the courage and strength of womenin battl e, and leave an impression of a measure ofequa lity betwee n the sexes among the richer Celts.

The RomansThe name "Brita in" comes from the word"Pretani ", the G reco-Rornan word for theinhabitant s of Brita in . T he Romans mispronouncedthe word and called the island " Britannia".

The Romans had invaded because the Celts ofBrit ain were working with the Celts of Gaul againstth em. T he British Celts were giving the m food, andallowing th em to h ide in Brit ain . There wasanot her reason . The Celts used cattle to pull theirploughs and th is meant that rich er, heavier landcould be farmed. Under the Celts Britain hadbecome an important food producer because of itsmild climate . It now exported corn and an imals, aswell as hunting dogs and slaves , to the Europea nmainl and. T he Romans cou ld make use of Brit ishfood for thei r own army fighting the Gauls.

The Romans brought the skills of reading andwriting to Britain. Th e written word was importantfor spreading ideas and also for estab lish ing power.As early as AD 80, as one Roman at the time not ed ,the governor Agricola "trained the sons of ch iefs inthe liberal art s .. . the result was th at the peop lewho used to reject Latin began to use it in speechand writ ing. Further the wearing of our nationaldress came to be valued and the toga [the Romancloak] came into fash ion." While the Celt icpeasantry remained illiterate and on ly Cel tic­speaking, a number of town dwellers spoke Lat inand Greek with ease, and the rich er landowners inthe count ry almost certa in ly used Latin . Bur Latincompletely disappeared both in its spoken andwritten forms when the Anglo-Saxons invaded

Britain in rhe fifth century AD. Britain was probablymore literate under the Romans than it was to beagain until the fifteenth century.

[ulius C aesar first came to Brita in in 55 BC, but itwas not until almost a cen tury later, in AD 43, thata Roman army actu ally occupied Britain. TheRomans were determined to conquer the wholeisland . They had little difficulty, apart fromBoadicea's revolt , because they had a better trainedarmy and because the Celtic tribes fought amongthemselves. The Romans considered the Celts aswar-mad , "high spirited and quick for bat tle", adescripti on some would st ill give the Scots, Irishand Welsh today.

The Romans established a Romano-British cultureacross the southern half of Britain , from the RiverHumber to the River Severn . T his part of Brita inwas inside the emp ire. Beyond were the uplandareas, under Roman con trol but not developed.Th ese areas were watched from the towns of York,Chester and Caerleon in the western pen insula ofBritain that later becam e known as Wales. Each ofthese towns was held by a Roman legion of about7,000 men . The total Roman army in Britain wasabout 40, 000 men .

The Romans could not conquer "Ca ledoni a" , asthey called Scotland , although they spent over acentury trying to do so. At last they built a strongwall along the northern border, named after theEmperor Hadrian who planned it . At the time,Hadrian's wall was simply intended to keep outraiders from the north. But it also marked theborder between th e two later countries, Englandand Scotland. Eventually, the border wasestablished a few miles further north . Efforts tochange it in later centuries did not succeed , mainlybecause on either side of the border an invadingarmy found its supply line overstre tched. A naturalpoint of balance had been found.

Roman cont rol of Britain came to an end as theempire began to collapse. The first signs were theattacks by Celts of Caledonia in AD 367. T heRoman legions found it more and more difficult tostop the raiders from crossing Hadrian 's wall. Thesame was happen ing on the European mainland as

I The foundation stones

Germanic groups, Saxons and Franks, began to raidthe coast of Gaul, In A D 409 Rome pulled its lastsoldiers out of Britain and the Romano-British , theRomanised Celts, were left to figh t alone againstthe Scots, the Irish and Saxon raiders fromGermany. The following year Rome itself fell toraiders. W hen Brita in called to Rome for he lpagainst the raiders from Saxon Germa ny in themid-fifth century, no answer came .

Roman lifeThe most obvious characteristic of Roman Britainwas its towns, which were the basis of Romanadministration and civi lisat ion. Many grew out ofCeltic settlements , military camps or marketcentres. Broadly, there were three different kinds oftown in Roman Britain , two of which were townsestab lished by Roman cha rter. T hese were thecoloniae, towns peop led by Roman settlers, and themunicipia , large cities in which the who lepopu lation was given Roman citizensh ip. The thirdkind, the civitas, included th e old Celt ic tr ibalcap itals, through which the Roman s admin isteredthe Celtic populat ion in the countryside. At firstthese towns had no walls. Then, probably from theend of the second cen tury to the end of the thi rdcentury AD, almost every town was given walls. Atfi rst man y of the se were no more than earthworks,but by AD 300 all towns had thick stone walls.

The Romans left about twenty large towns of about5, 000 inhabitants, and almost one hundred smallerones. Man y of thes e towns were at first army camps,and the Latin word for camp, castra, has remain edpart of many town name s to this day (with th eending chester, caster or cesrer) : G loucester, Lei­cester, Doncaster, Winchester, Chester, Lancasterand many others besides. These towns were builtwith stone as well as wood , and had plan nedstreets, markets and shops. Some build ings hadcentral heating. They were connected by roadswhich were so well built that th ey survived whenlater roads broke up. These roads contin ued to beused long after the Romans left , and became themain roads of modern Brita in. Six of the se Romanroads met in London, a cap ita l city of about 20,000

9

A n Illustrated History of Britain

The reconslrw,:tiOll of a ROITI4mkifcht.>t1 ab!:JW AD 100 shuu's txJl.5

and cqllipmetlf. The ~1I1 pOIS , oram pho rae. were for wne or oil.The R(JI1'UlflS proolh.-l.'d willl.' inBriwin, bill the)' als(l imtxmeJ iffrom S(JU ffu.'TTl Europe.

peop le. London was twice the size of Paris, andpossibly the most important trading cent re ofnorthern Europe, because southeast Britainproduced so much co rn for export.

Outside the towns, the biggest change during theRoman occ upation was the growth of large farms,ca lled "vi llas". These belonged fa rhe richer Brito nswho were, like the tow nspeop le, more Roman thanCelt in thei r manners. Each villa had manyworkers. The vill as were usually close to tow ns sothat the crops could be sold easily. There was agrow ing difference betwee n the rich and those whodid the actual work on the land . T hese. and mostpeople. still lived in the same kind of round hu tsand villages wh ich the Celts had been living in fourhundred years earlier. when the Romans arr ived.

In some ways life in Roman Britain seems veryc ivilised. but it was also hard for all exce pt therichest. The bodies buried in a Roman graveyard at

York show tha t life expectancy was low. Half theent ire populatio n died between the ages of twentyand forty. while 15 pet cent died before reachingthe age of twenty.

10

It is very difficult to be sure how many peop le wereliving in Britain when the Romans left. Probably itwas as many as five million. partly because of thepeace and the increased econo mic life wh ich theRomans had brought to the count ry. The new waveof invaders cha nged all that .

2 The Saxon invasionT he invaders ' Government and society' Chris tianity: the partnership ofChurch and state ' The Vikings' W ho should be king?

TheAnglo-Saxon inMSK:ms and the kingdoms they established.

T he strength of Anglo-Saxon culture is obviouseven today. Days of the week were na med afte rGe rmanic gods: Tig (Tu esday), Wod in(Wednesday), Thor (Thursday), Frei (Friday) . Newplace-names appeared on the map. The first of

D ANGLES N

D SAXONS Jo JUTES

o l 00 km

Whilby

.York

M E R C IA

,,'Q'''',.,.-

WALES \~,~

"",

known as Scotland. Some Celts stayed behind, andmany became slaves of the Saxons. Hardl y anyth ingis left of Ce ltic language or culture in England ,except for th e names of some rivers, Thames,Mersey, Severn and Avon , and two large cities,Lond on and Leeds.

The invadersT he wealth of Brita in by the fourth cen tury, theresult of its mild climate and centur ies of peace , wasa temptation to the greedy. At fi rst the German icir ibes on ly raided Britain , but afte r AD 430 theybegan to set tle. The newcom ers were warlike andilliterate. We owe our knowledge of thi s periodmainly to an English monk named Bede, who livedthree hundred years later. His story of events in hisEcclesiastical History of the English People has beenproved generally correct by archaeologicalevidence.

Bede tell s us that the invaders came from threepowerful Ge rman ic tribes, the Saxons , Angles and[utes. The [utes settled mainly in Kent and alongthe south coas t, and were soon considered no dif­ferent from the Angles and Saxons. T he Anglessettled in the east, and also in the north Midlands,while the Saxons settled betwee n the [utes and theAngles in a band of land from the Thames Estuarywestwards. The Anglo-Saxon migrations gave thelarger part of Britain its new name, England , "theland of the Angles" .

The Brit ish C elts fought the raiders and settlersfrom Ge rmany as well as they could. However ,during the next hundred years they were slowlypushed westwards until by 570 they were forcedwest of Gloucester. Finally most were driven intothe mountains in the far west , which the Saxonscalled "Weallas" , or "Wales" , meaning "the land ofthe foreigne rs". Some C elts were driven intoCornwa ll, whe re they later accep ted the rule ofSaxon lords. In the north , other Celts were dr iveninto the lowlands of the country which became

11

An Illustrated History of Brirain

these show that the earliest Saxon villages, like theCelt ic ones, were family villages. The ending -ingmeant folk or family, thu s "Reading" is rhe place ofthe family of Rada , "Hast ings" of the family ofHasta. Ham means farm, ton means settlement.Birmingha m, Nottingham or Southampton , forexample, are Saxon place-names. Because theAnglo-Saxon kings often esta blished sett lements ,Kingston is a frequent place-na me.

T he Anglo-Saxons established a number ofkingdoms, some of which still ex ist in county orregional names to th is day: Essex (East Sa xons),Sussex (South Saxons), Wessex (West Saxons),Middlesex (probably a kingdom of Midd le Saxons),East Anglia (East Angles). By the midd le of theseventh cent ury th e three largest kingdoms, thoseof Northumbria, Merc ia and Wessex, were themost powerful.

Left: A si/tier penny showingOffa, king of Mercia (AV 757-896), Offawas mort'powerful thanany of the other Anglo-Saxon kings of his nme orbefore him. Hi5 coins were of a higher quality than any coins used since thedepartureof the Romans fourhundredyears earlier,

Right: A goldcoin of KingOffa, a direa cop)' of an Arabdinar of the yearAD 774. Most of it is in Arabic, buton one side it also has "OFFA REX".It tells US t1uu the Anglo-Saxons0/Briwin were UJell aware of a moreadvanced economic system in the distant Arabempire. and alw that even asfar away as Britain and northern Europe, Arab-typegold coins were moretnLSted thanany others. It shows how greal uere the distances cOt"eTed byinternational trade at this time.

It was not until a century late r that one of thesekings, King Offa of Mercia (757-96) , claimed"kingship of the English" . He had good reason todo so. He was powerful enough to employ thou­sands of men to build a huge dyke, or earth wall,the length of the Welsh border to keep out thetroublesome Celts. But although he was the mostpowerful king of his t ime, he did not contro l all ofEngland.

T he power of Mercia did not survive after Offa'sdeath . A t that time, a king's power depended onthe person al loyalty of h is followers. Aft er his deaththe next king had to work hard ro rebu ild thesepersonal feelings of loyalty. Most peop le stillbelieved, as the Celts had done, that a man' s fi rst

12

duty was to h is own family. However, thi ngs werechanging. The Saxon kings began to replace loyaltyto family with loyalty to lord and king.

Government and societyThe Saxons created institution s which made theEnglish state strong for the next 500 years. O ne ofthese institutions was the King's Counc il, called theWitan. T he W itan probably grew out of inform algroups of sen ior warriors and churchmen to whomkings like Offa had turned for advice or support ondifficult matters. By the tenth century the Witanwas a formal body, issuing laws and charte rs. It wasnot at all democrat ic, and th e king could decide toignore the W itan's advice. But he knew that itmight be dangerous to do so. For the W itan'sauthority was based on its right to choose kings,and to agree the use of the king's laws. W ithout itssupport th e king's own author ity was in danger.The W itan established a system which remained animportan t part of the king's method of govern ment .Even today, the king or queen has a Privy Council,a group of advisers on the affairs of state.

The Saxons div ided th e land into new admin is­trative areas, based on shires. or counties. Thesesh ires, established by the end of the tenth century,remain ed almost exactl y the same for a thousandyears. "Shire" is the Saxon word, "county" theNorman one, but both are st ill used . (In 1974 th ecounties were reorganised, but the new system isvery like the old one. ) Over each shire was ap­pointed a shire reeve, the king's local administrator.In time his name became sho rtened to "sheriff" .

Anglo-Saxon technology cha nged the shape ofEnglish agriculture . The Celts had kept small,square fields which were well suited to the lightplough they used, drawn either by an an imal or twopeop le. T h is plough could turn corners easily. TheAnglo-Saxons introduced a far heavier ploughwhich was better able to plough in long straigh tlines across the field . It was part icularly useful forcult ivating heavier soils. But it requ ired six or eightoxen to pull it , and it was difficult to turn . T hisheavier plough led to changes in land owne rsh ipand organ isation. In order to make the best use of

Recomtrucrion of an Anglo-Sa:wn I.'illage . Each househad prob.ibly onlyune room, with a wooden floor with a pit beneath ir. Thepit mayMve beenused for storage, bur mort' probably to keep che house off the damp ground.Each tJi/lage had ir.s lord. The UIOTd "lord" means "loaf u.'drd" or "breadkeeper", while "lady" means "loaf kneader" or "bread maker", a remindertMr the rosis of $axon socit'IY u.'aS farming . ThedUl~ of the dlIage head, orlord. was to protect the farm and itsproduce.

village land . it was d ivided into two or three verylarge fields. T hese were then div ided aga in in tolong th in str ips. Each family had a number of str ipsin each of these fields. amo unt ing probably to afamily "holding" of twe nty or so ac res. Plough ingthese long th in strips was easier because it avo idedthe prob lem of tu rn ing . Few individual fam iliescould afford to keep a team of oxe n . an d these hadto be sha red on a co-operat ive basis.

One of these fields would be used for plantingspring crops, and ano ther for autumn crops. Theth ird area would be left to rest for a year. and withthe othe r areas after harvest , would be used ascommon land for anima ls to feed on. T his A nglo­Saxon pattern, which became more and morecommon. was the basis of English agricu lture for athousand years. until the eighteenth century.

It needs on ly a moment's thought to recog nise th atthe fair di vision of land and of teams of oxe n . andthe sens ible management of village land sha red outbetwee n families. meant th at villagers had to workmore closely together than they had ever donebefore.

The Saxons ser tled previously un fanned areas. Theycut down many foresred areas in valleys to farm thericher lowland so il. and they bega n to drain the wet

2 The Saxon invasion

land. A s a result . a lmost all the villages wh ichappear on eightee nt h-century maps already ex istedby the ele venth century.

In eac h distri ct was a "man or" or large house. T hiswas a simple bui lding where local villagers ca me topay taxes, whe re justice was admin istered. andwhe re men met toget he r to jo in the Anglo-Saxonarmy. th e fyrd. The lord of the man or had toorgan ise all th is. and make sure village land wasproperly sha red. It was th e beginn ing of theman or ial system which reached its fullestdevelopment under th e Normans.

At first th e lords, or aldemlen . were simply loca lofficials. But by th e beginning of th e eleventhce ntury th ey were warlords. and were ofte n ca lledby a new Dan ish name, earl. Both words, aldermanan d earl . remain with us today : alderme n areelected officers in local gove rn ment . and earls arehigh ranking nob les. It was the beginning of a classsystem, made up of king . lords. sold iers and workerson th e lan d. O ne other important class developedduring th e Saxon period . th e men of learning.T hese ca me from th e C hrist ian C hurch .

Christianity: the partnership ofChurch and stateWe ca nno t kno w how or when C hristia n ity firstreached Britain . but it was ce rta in ly well beforeC hristian ity was accepted by the Roman EmperorC onsran t ine in the early fourth ce ntury AD. In th elast hundred years of Rom an govern me ntC hristian ity became firmly established acrossBritain , bo th in Roman-control led areas andbeyond. However. the Anglo-Saxons belo nged toan older Germanic religion . an d they drove th eCelts into the west and north . In th e Ce ltic areasC h rist ian ity continued to spread. bringing paganismto an end . T he map of W ales sho ws a number ofplace-names beginning or ending with llan.meaning the site of a small Celt ic monastery aro undwhich a village or tow n grew.

In 597 r ope G regory the G rea t sen t a monk.A ugustine. to re-establish C hristianity in England.He went to Canterbury, th e capita l of the king ofKent. He did so beca use the king's wife came from

13

An Illustrated Histo ry of Britain

Theopening page of StLuke's Gospel, made al the Northumbrian island ofLiTll:li5fame, about AD 698, In hi:s History, Bede wrote hou.o one man fOldlhe pagan Northumbrian king, "when '014 aresittingin winter wilh yourlords in thefeasting hall, with a good fire re wann and light it, a spalTow Jliesinfrom the storms of rain and snowourside. It flies inal one door, acTOS5 thelighted room andout through lhe other dCI(IT into thedarkncH and 511mltSours ide. In the :same way man comesinto the light f(IT a shcITt lime, bul ofUMt came be{VTe, orwhatis to follow, man is ignorant. 1{ this new teachingteUs U!i :something more certain, il :s:eentS worth follot.l!ing." Christianit)'gave the Anglo-Saxon U l(n'/d new certainl)'.

Europe and was already C hristian . August inebecam e the first Archb ishop of Canterbury in 60 I .He was very successful. Severa l ruling families inEngland accept ed C hristian ity. But Augustine andh is group of monk s made little progress with theordina ry people. This was partl y beca use Augustin ewas interested in estab lish ing Chr istian authority,and that meant brin ging rulers to th e new faith .

It was the Celtic C hurch which broughtC hristianity to the ord inary peop le of Britain . TheCeltic bishops went out from their mon asteries ofWales, Ireland and Sco tland , walkin g from village

14

to village teaching C hristian ity. In spite of thedifferences between Anglo-Saxons and Ce lts, thesebishop s seem to have been readily accepted inAnglo-Saxon areas. The bishops from the RomanChurch lived at the cou rts of the kings, which theymade centres of Church power across England. Thetwo C hrist ian C hurches, Celt ic and Roman, couldhardly have been more different in character. O newas most interested in the hearts of ordinarypeople , the other was interested in authority andorganisation. The competition between the Cel ticand Roman C hurches reached a crisis because theydisagreed over the date of Easter. In 663 at theSynod (meet ing) of Whitby the king ofNorthumbria decided to support the RomanC hurch. T he Celt ic C h urch retreat ed as Romeextended its authority over all Christians , eve n inCelt ic parts of the island .

England had become C hrist ian very quickly. By 660only Sussex and the Isle of W ight had not acceptedthe new faith . T wen ty years later , English teache rsreturned to the lands from which the An glo-Saxon shad come, bringing Christianity to much ofGermany.

Saxon kings helped the C hurch to grow, but theChurch also incre ased the power of kings. Bishopsgave kings the ir support , which made it harder forroyal power to be questioned . Kings had "God'sapproval ". T he value of Church approval was allthe greater because of the uncer tainty of th e royalsuccession . An eldest son did not automaticallybeco me king, as kings were chosen from among themembers of the royal family, and any member whohad eno ugh soldiers might try for the th ron e. Inaddit ion , at a time when one king might try toco nquer a neighbouring kingdom , he wouldprobably have a son to whom he would wish to passthi s en larged kingdom when he died. Ami so whenKing Offa arranged for his son to be crowned as hissuccessor, he made sure that this was done at aCh rist ian ceremony led by a bishop. It was goodpolitical propaganda, because it suggested tha t kingswere chosen not on ly by peop le but also by God.

There were other ways in which th e C hurchincreased the power of th e English state. Itestablished monasteries, or minsters, for example

2 The Saxon invasion

The VikingsTowards the end of th e eigh th cent ury new raider swere tempted by Britain 's wealth . These were theVikings, a word which probably means eirher"pir ates" or "t he peop le of th e sea inlets", and the ycame from Norway and Denmark. Like the Angle ­Saxons they only raided at first . They burntchurches and monasteries along the east, north andwest coasts of Britain and Ireland. London was itselfraided in 842.

In 865 the Vikings invaded Britain once it wasclear that the quarrelling Anglo-Saxo n kingdomscould not keep them out. This time they cameto conquer and to set tle. The Vikings quicklyaccepted Christ ian ity and did not disturb the localpopulat ion. By 875 only King Alfred in the westof Wessex held out against the Vikings, who hadalready taken most of England. Afte r some seriousdefeat s Alfred won a dec isive battle in 878, andeight years later he captured Lond on . He was strongenough to make a treat y with the Vikings.

FRANCE

ShetlandIslands

~!

~ areas underViking control

o 200 km

Westminste r, wh ich were places of learn ing andeducation. These monasteries t ra ined the men whocould read and write, so that they had the necessaryskills for the growth of royal and Church autho rity.The king who made most use of the C hurch wasAlfred, the great king who ruled Wessex from 871­899. He used the Iirerare men of rhe C hurch tohelp esrablish a system of law, to educate thepeople and to write down important matters. Hestarted the A nglo-Saxon Chronicle, the mostimportant source, toge ther with Bede 's EcclesiasticalHistory of the English People, for understanding theperiod.

During the next hundred years, laws were made ona large number of matte rs. By the eleventh cent uryroyal author ity probably went wider and deeper inEngland tha n in any other European country.

This process gave power int o the hands of thosewho cou ld read and write , and in this way classdivisions were increased. The power of landlords,who had been given lan d by the king, was increasedbecause the ir names were written down. Peasant s,who could neither read nor write, could lose theirtradit iona l rights to the ir land, because their right swere not registered.

The Anglo-Saxon kings also preferred the RomanChurch to the C elt ic C hurch for eco nomic reasons.Villages and towns grew around the monasteriesand increased local trade. Many bishops and monksin England were from the Franki sh land s (Franceand Germany) and elsewhere. They were invited byEnglish rulers who wished to benefit from closerChurch an d economic contact with Europe. Mostof these bishops and mon ks seem to have comefrom churches or mon asteries along Europe 's vitaltrade routes. In this way close contact with man yparts of Europe was encouraged. In addit ion they allused Lat in, the written language of Rome, and th isencouraged English trade with the continen t.Increased literacy itself helped trade. Anglo-SaxonEngland becam e well known in Europe for itsexports of woollen goods, cheese, hunting dogs,pottery and meta l goods. It imported wine, fish ,pepper, jewellery and wheel-made pottery.

TheViking invasionsand the areas they broughr under their control.

15

An Illustr ated H istory of Britai n

..

Viking rule was recogn ised in the east and nort h ofEngland. It was called the Danc law, the land wherethe law of the Danes ruled. In the rest of thecountry Alfred was recognised as king. Durin g hisstruggle against the Danes, he had built walledset tlements to keep them out. These were calledburghs. They became prosperous market towns, andthe word, now usually spelt borough. is one of thecommonest endings to place names, as well as thename of the un it of municipa l or [ownadmin istrat ion today.

Who should be king?By 950 England seemed rich and peaceful againafter the troub les of the Viking invasion, But soonafterwards the Dan ish Vikings started raidin gwestward s. The Saxon king, Eth elrcd, decided tor ay the Vikings to stay away. To find the money heset a tax on all his peop le, ca lled Oanegeld, or" Danish mon ey" . It was the beginn ing of a regulartax system of the people whic h would prov ide themoney for armies. T he effects of this tax were mostheavily felt by the ordina ry villagers, because theyhad to provide enough money for their villagelandlord to r ay Dancgcld.

16

Tne 5kn)' of rite battle uf H(ljting5 and theNorman Conque5t of Saxon England i5told in rite Bayeux tape5tTy cartoon."Harold rite king is killed" $(1)'5 riteLuin u.'l'iting, and beneath if 5WruU Cl

man with an arrow in hi5 eye, belielledto be King Harold. In rite PiCU4fC 5triPbeluu, [ne main scene, men ate seensfealingl~ clothing from tne dead andUJOunded, a common prccnce onbaukfield.s through rite cen umes.

The05eberg Viking 5hip, made inabout AD BOO. U'(l5 21 metres long andcarried about 35 men. Although thi5particular 5hip U'(l5 probably onlywedalong rite COc1n, 5hips of5imilarsizeuere used to invade Britain. Tneirde5ign Wt1$ brilliant. When an exactcopy of 5imilar5hip was usedto CT055

rite A flantic to America in 1893, ifScaptain U'TOfe. "!hefines! merchantships of ourda)' ..• MlIe practicallythe some type of lxJuom as rite Viking5hip5.:'

When Erhelred died C nut (or Ca nure), the leaderof the Dani sh Vikings, controlled much ofEngland . He became king for the simple reasonth at the royal counc il, the W iran, and everyoneelse, feared disorder. Rule by a Dan ish king was farbetter than rule by no one at all. C nut died in1035, and his son died shor tly after, in 1040 . T heWitan chose Edward, one of Saxon Erhe lred's sons,to he king .

Edward, known as "the Confessor" . was moreinterested in the Church than in kingship. Churchbuilding had been going on for ove r a century. andhe encou raged it. By the time Edward died therewas a church in almost eve ry village. The pattern ofthe English village, with its manor hou se andchurch , dates from this t ime. Edward star ted a newchurch flt for Cl king at Westmin ster, just out sidethe city of Lond on . In fact Westlllin ster Abbey wasa Norman , not a Saxon building, because he hadspent almost all his life in Nor mandy, and h ismot her was a daughter of the duke of No rmandy.As thei r name suggests, the No rmans were peop lefrom the north, T hey were the ch ildre n andgrandchi ldren of Vik ings who had captured. andset tled in. northern France, T hey had soon become

2 The Saxon invasion

French in the ir language and C hristian in the irreligion . But they were st ill we ll known for the irfigh ting skills.

Edward on ly lived until 106 6, when he diedwithout an obvious heir. Th e question of whoshould follow him as king was o ne of the mostimportant in English history. Edward had broughtmany Normans to h is English court from France .These Norrnans were not liked by the morepowerful Saxon nohles, pa rt icularly by the mostpowerful fam ily of Wessex, th e Godwi nso ns. It wasa Godwi nson , Harold, who m the \Vi tan chose to

be th e next kin g of Eng land. Harold had alreadyshown his bravery and abil ity. He had no royalblood , but he seemed a goo d cho ice for the throneof England.

Harold's right to the English throne was challengedby Duke W ill iam of Nor mandy . Wi ll iam had twoclaims to the English throne . His first claim wasthat King Edward had promi sed it to hi m. Th esecon d cl aim was that Harold, who had visitedWil liam in 1064 or 1065, had promised Williamthat he, Harold , wou ld not try to take the thronefor h imself. Harold did not de ny th is second claim,but said that he had been force d to make th e

promi se . and that because it was made unw illinglyhe was not tied by it.

Harold was faced by two dan gers, o ne in th e southand one in th e nor th. T he Danish Vikings had no tgiven up th eir claim to the Eng lish th rone. In 1066Haro ld had to march north into Yorksh ire to defeatthe Danes. No soone r had he defeated the m tha nhe learn t that Wi lliam had lan ded in Eng land withan army. His men were tired. hut they had no timeto rest . They ma rched south as fast as possib le.

Haro ld dec ided not to wait for th e wh ole Saxonarmy. the h'nl. ro gathe r because W illiam's armywas sma ll. He tho ugh t he could beat the m with themen who h,h..1 don e so we ll against the Danes.However, the No rman so ldiers were bet ter armed ,better organised , and were mounted on horses. If hehad waited , Haro id migh t have won . But he wasde feat ed and ki lled in ba ttl e near Hastings.

W illiam marched to London , whi ch qu ick ly gavein whe n he bega n to burn villages o utside the c ity.He was crowne d king of Eng land in Edward's newch urc h of Westm inste r Abbey on C hristmas Day,1066 . A new period had begun,

17

3 The Celtic kingdomsWales · Ireland · Scotland

England has always played the most powerful partin the h istory of the British Isles. However, theorhe r three countries, Wa les, Ireland and Sco tland,have a differen t history. Until recently fewhistorians looked at British history exce pt from anEnglish point of view. But the stor ies of Wa les,Ireland and Sco tland are also important, becausethe ir peop le st ill feel different from the Anglo­Saxon English. The experience of the Welsh , Irishand Scots helps to explain the feel ing they havetoday.

WalesBy th e eight h century most of the Celt s had beendriven int o the W elsh peninsula. T hey were keptout of England by Offa's Dyke , the huge earth wallbuilt in AD 779. These Celts, ca lled Wel sh by theAnglo-Saxons , called themselves cymr y , "fellowcoun trymen".

Because Wa les is a mountainous country, the cymrycould on ly live in the crowded valleys. T he rest ofth e land was rocky and too poor for an yth ingexcept keeping an imals. For thi s reason thepopu lation remain ed small. It on ly grew to ove rhalf a million in the eigh teenth cen tury. Life washard and so was the behaviour of the people.Slavery was common , as it had been all throu ghCelt ic Britain.

Soc iety was based on family groupings, each ofwhich owned one or more village or farmsettlemen t. O ne by one in each group a strongleader made h imself king. These men must havebeen tribal ch iefs to begin with , who later managedto beco me overlords over neigh bouring familygroups. Each of these kings tr ied ro conquer theothe rs, and the idea of a high , or senior, kingdeveloped.

18

~ o~sokm ]

Wales and its Celric kingdoms.

The early kings trave lled around th eir kingdoms torem ind the peop le of the ir control. T hey travelledwith their hungry followers and soldiers. T heordinary people ran away into the hills and woodswhen the king's men approac hed their village.

Life was dangerous, treac herous and bloody. In1043 the king of G lamorgan died of old age. It wasan unusual event, because between 949 and 1066no less than thirty-five W elsh rulers died violently,usually killed by a cym ry, a fellow countryman .

In 1039 G ruffydd ap (son of) L1ewelyn was the firstWelsh h igh king strong enough to rule over allWales. He was also the last , and in order to remainin contro l he spent almost the who le of his reignfight ing his ene mies. Like man y ot her We lsh rulers,Gruffvdd was killed by a cymry while defending'Wales against the Saxo ns. Welsh kings after himwere able to rule on ly after the y had promisedloyalty to Edward the Confessor, king of England.The story of an independent and uni ted Wa les wasover almost as soo n as it had begun.

IrelandIreland was never invaded by either the Romans orthe Anglo-Saxons. It was a land of monasteries andhad a flourishing Celt ic culture. As in Wales,people were known by the family grouping theybelonged ro. O urside their tr ibe they had noprotect ion and no name of th eir own. They hadonly the name of th eir tribe. The kings in thi stribal society were chosen by election. The idea wasthat the strongest man should lead. In fact thesystem led to cont inuous cha llenges.

Five kingdoms grew up in Ireland: Ulster in thenorth , Mun srer in the sourhwest , Leinster in thesoutheast , Connaught in the west , with Tara as theseat of the high kin gs of Ireland.

Christian ity came to Ireland in about A D 430. Thebeginnin g of Ireland 's history date s from that time,because for the first time there were people whocould write down events. T he message ofChrist ianity was spread in Ireland by a British slave,Parrick, who became the "patron saint" of Ireland.Christianit y brought wriring , wh ich weakened theposition of the Druids, who depended on memoryand the spoken word . C hristian monasteries grewup, frequen tly along the coast.

This period is often ca lled Ireland's "golden age" .Invaders were unknown and culture flowered . But iris also true that th e five kingdoms were often atwar, each trying to gain advantage over the other,often with great cruel ty.

Ireland's Celtic kingdoms.

TARA(seat of thehigh kingsof Ireland )

3 The Celtic kingdo ms

Tht' rtJ lHkl w U 't.'Tof De"'enish is one fJf (mly «< '(I t!klf still stand (It Celticmfl1klSfi(' sifes in UlstCT, lreL:mJ. This one Willbllilt in Ihe fu'(lfthC('T1Ulry

An The ounmce is abol/f Ihree metres <!bot:e ground ktd, ,mJ !k,J a L:uLkrt!klt C(luU be pulkd in so t!kuenemies (mM nOl etue-r. This design may wellhaw be!.'n infTflJuad after lheVikiT\R raids began in theninlh cenwry .

19

An Illustrated History of Britain

This "golden age" sudden ly ended with the arrivalof Viking raiders, who sto le all that the monaste rieshad . Very little was left except the stone memorialsthat the Vikings could not carry away.

The Vikings, who traded with Constantinop le(now Istan bul) , Italy, and with central Russia,brought fresh economic and polit ical act ion int oIrish life. Viking raids forced the Irish to un ite . In859 Ireland chose its fi rst high king, but it was notan effective solut ion because of the quarre ls thattook place each t ime a new high king was chosen.Viking trade led to the first towns and ports. Forthe C elts, who had always lived in smallsettlements, these were revolutionary. Dublin,Ireland 's future capital, was founded by the Vikings.

As an effective method of rule the h igh kingship ofIreland lasted on ly twelve years, from 1002 to 1014 ,while Ireland was ruled by Btian Boru. He is st illlooked back on as Ireland 's greatest ruler. He triedto create one single Ireland , and encouraged thegrowth of organ isation - in the Church, inadmin istration, and in learning.

Brian Boru d ied in batt le against the Vikings. O neof the fi ve Irish kings, th e king of Leinsrer , foughton the Vikings' side. Just over a century laterano ther king of Lein ster invited the Norrnans ofEngland to hel p him against his high king. Th isgave the Normans the excuse they wanted toen large their kingdom .

ScotlandAs a result of its geography, Scotland has twodifferent societ ies. In the centre of Scotlandmountain s stre tch to the far north and across to thewest , beyond which lie many islan ds. To the eastand to the south the lowland hill s are gen tle r, andmuch of the countryside is like England, rich ,welcoming and easy to farm. No rth of the"Highland Line" , as the division between highlandand lowland is called, people stayed tied to theirown family groups. South and east of th is linesociety was more easily influen ced by the changestaking place in England.

20

Iona. the wes tern Scottish islandanwhich SrColumba e5lablished his abbeyin AD 563 when he came Ireland. FrQJT\ lanaColumba sent his mi55ianarie5to bring ChriHUIni[y to the5C0[5. Thepresentcathedralwasbuil! in about/500.

Sco tland was populated by four separate groups ofpeople . The main group, th e Piers, lived mostly inthe nor th and northeast . T hey spoke Celt ic as wellas anothe r, proba bly older, language completelyunconnected with any known language today, andthey seem to have been the ear liest inh abitants ofthe land. T he Piers were different from the Celtsbecause they inh erited theit rights , th eir names andproperty from their mothers, not from their fathers.

T he non-Picr ish inh abitant s were mainly Sco ts.T he Scots were Celtic settle rs who had started tomove into the western Highlands from Ireland inthe fourth cent ury.

In 843 the Pict ish and Sco tt ish kingdoms wereuni ted under a Sco tt ish king, who could alsoprobably claim the Pictish th ron e thro ugh hismother , in thi s way obeying both Sco tt ish andPicti sh rules of kingship.

The third group were the Britons, who inh abitedthe Lowlands, and had been part of the Romano­Briti sh world. (T he name of th eir kingdom ,St rathclyde, was used aga in in the countyreorganisation of 1974.) T hey had probably givenup their old tr ibal way of life bv the sixth cen tury.Finally, there were Angles from No rthumbria whohad pushed northwards into the Sco tt ish Lowlands.

Un ity between Piers, Sco ts and Briton s wasachieved for seve ral reasons. T he y all shared a

[0 l 00 km ~t SHETLANO jef

. '==='""~ ; ISLANDS 't Scorland: ir5 earl)' !'e(lple5.

" Go~

O R K N EY «'f!i'ISLANDS~A

<;J;g

Had rian's Wall

common Celt ic culture, language and background .Their economy main ly depended on keepinganimals. These an imals were owned by the tribe asa whole, and for th is reason land was also held bytribes, nor by indi vidual peop le. The commoneconomic system increased the ir feeling ofbelonging to the same kind of society and thefeeling of difference from the agricultural Lowlands.The sense of common culture may have beenincreased by marriage alliances between tribes. Th isidea of common landholding remained strong unt ilthe tribes of Sco tland, called "clans" , co llapsed inthe eighteenth cen tury.

The spread of Celtic C hrist ian ity also helped tounite the people. The fi rst C hristian mission to

Scotlan d had come to southwest Scotland in aboutAD 400. Later , in 563, Columba, known as the"Dove of the Ch urch" , came from Ireland.Through his work both Highland Scots and Pictswere brought to Christianity. He even, so it is said ,defeate d a monster in Loch Ness, the first mentionof thi s famous creature. By the time of the Synod ofWhi tby in 663 , the Piers, Sco ts and Britons had allbeen brought closer togethe r by C hristianity.

The Angles were very different from the Celts.T hey had arrived in Brita in in family groups, butthey soon began to accept author ity from peopleoutside the ir own family. This was partl y due to

3 The Celtic kingdoms

their way of life. A lthough they kept some animals,they spent more time growing crops. T h is mean tthat land was held by individual people, each manworking in his own field . Land was distr ibuted forfarmin g by the local lord. This system encouragedthe Angles of Sco tland to develop a non -tribalsystem of control, as th e peop le of England furrh ersouth were doing. Th is increased the ir feeling ofdifference from the Celtic tr ibal Highlanders furthe rnorth .

Finally, as in Ireland and in Wales, fore ign invadersincreased the speed of political change. Vikingsattacked the coas ta l areas of Sco tland, and theysettled on many of the islands, She tland, theO rkneys, the Hebrides, and the Isle of Mansout hwest of Sco tland. In order to resist them, Piersand Sco ts fough t together against the enemy raidersand set tle rs. Whe n they could not push them out ofthe islands and coastal areas, they had to deal withthem politically. At first the Vikings, or"Norsemen" , st ill served th e king of Norway. Butcommunicat ions with No rway were difficult . Slowlythe earls of Orkney and othe r areas found it easierto accept the king of Sco ts as the ir ovetlord, ratherthan the more distant king of Norway.

However, as the Wel sh had also discovered , theEnglish were a greate r dange r tha n the Vikings. In934 the Scots were seriously defeated by a W essexanny pushing northwards. The Scots dec ided toseek the friendship of the English , because of thelikely losses from war. England was obviouslystro nger than Sco tland but , luckily for the Sco ts,both the north of England and Scotland werediffi cul t to control from London . T he Sco ts hopedthat if they were reason ably peaceful theSassenac hs, as they called the Saxons (and st ill callth e English), wou ld leave th em alone.

Sco tland remain ed a difficult country to rule evenfrom its capital, Edinburgh . Anyone looking at amap of Sco tland can immediate ly see that controlof the Highlands and islands was a great prob lem .T ravel was often impossible in wint er, and slow anddifficult in summer. It was easy for a clan chief ornob le to throw off the rule of the king.

21

2Z

\!\\

The early Middle Ages4 Conquest and feudal rule

The Norman Conquest · Feudalism · Kingship: a famil y business·Magna Carta and the decline of feudalism

The Norman ConquestWilliam the Conqueror's coro nat ion did not go asplanned. Whe n the peop le shouted "God Save theKing" the nervous Norman guards at W estminsterAbbey rhought th ey were going to attack William.In their fear th ey set fire to nearby houses and rhecoronation ce remony ended in disorder.

Although Will iam was now crowned king. hisconquest had on ly just begun. and the fight inglasted for ano ther five years. T here was an Anglo­Saxon rebellion again st the No rrnans every yearunt il 1070. The small Norman army marched fromvillage to village , destroying places it could notcont rol. and building forts to guard others. It was atrue army of occupation for at least twenty years.The north was parti cularly hard to control. and theNorman army had no mercy. When the Saxonsfought back. the Normans burnt. destroyed andkilled. Between Durh am and York not a singlehouse was left standing. and it took a century forthe north to recover.

Few Saxon lords kept the ir lands and those who didwere the very small num ber who had acceptedWilliam immed iately. All the others losteverything. By 1086. twenty years after the arrivalof the Normans , on ly two of the greater landlords

An (ITgu mt.'JI1 beru't't'n King Henry' 11 L1nJ his archbishop, Thomas Bt"ckt't.Behind Beeker send am knighrs, probr.lbl)' those who killed him 10 pkast'Henry. Thepie/ure iUustrafes the stnj~ll." berueen Church andsWleJuringthe early Middle Ages. TheChurch controlled mone:,. land (including roomlIndfelu.l.u este res}, and men. As a resl.lr , the kings of England had 10 bewry careful in their dealings u'irh cht'ChIITCh. Th.>:o Irlt'd 10 pre tenr tinymcrecse in Church power, and tried to ,If>poinl bishops u·ho U'OlI/J hi: mOTe

ln~'al lfl lhe kinR rhan 10 [he Ch l~rch. Becket died because he [rit.'J w prew nr[he kinR from gaininRmore control 0/ C hllKh affairs.

and only two bishops were Saxon , Willi am gave theSaxon lands to his Norman nobles, After eachEnglish rebellion there was more land to give away.His army included Norman and othe r French landseekers. Ov er 4.000 Saxon landl ords were replacedby 200 Norman ones.

FeudalismW illiam was careful in the way he gave land to hisnobles. T he king of France was less powerful thanmany of the great landlords. of whom W ilIiam wasthe outstanding example. In England. as each newarea of land was captured . Wi lliam gave parts of itas a reward to his captains. This meant that theyheld separate small pieces of land in different partsof th e count ry so that no noble could easily orquickly gather his fightin g men to rebel. Willi amon ly gave some of his nobles larger esta tes along thetroublesome borde rs with Wales and Scotland. Atthe same time he kept en ough land for him self to

make sure he was much stronger than his nobles,Of all the farmland of England he gave ha lf to theNorman nobles, a quarter to the Ch urch, an d kep ta fifth himself. He kept th e Saxon system ofshe riffs, and used th ese as a balance to local nob les.As a result England was different from the rest ofEurope because it had one powerful fam ily, insteadof a large number of powerful nobles. W illiam , andthe kings after him . though t of England as theirpersonal property.

William organ ised his English kingdom accordingto the feudal system which had already begun to

develop in England before his arrival. The word

23

An Illustrated Hisrorv of Britain

Casrle Rising in Norfolk, a fine exo.mple of !hes!One,built keeps the No-mens built in rhe ear(~

tU'ft/fth cenrury. These replaced !heearlier Ncmnan "mcne andbailey"cudes. u:hich were earrhmounds SUTTOtmded by a wooden fena or paIfuade. A s!One·lrnilr keep of !heIU'U' kindWd5

extremel)'difficult to capture, except by surprise . Keeps of this kindhad a weU, p-ro~.'iJ ing fTe5hwater far a long siege.

"feudalism" comes from the Frenc h word [eu, whichthe Normans used to refer to land held in return forduty or service to a lord. The basis of feudal societywas the holding of land , and its main purpose waseconomic. T he cen tral idea was that all land wasowned by the king but it was held by others . ca lled"vassa ls", in retu rn for services and goods. T he kinggave large estates to h is main nobles in return for apromise to serve him in war for up to forty days.T he nobles also had to give hi m part of the produceof the land . T he greater nob les gave part of the irlands to lesser nob les, kn ights. and other"freemen". Some freemen paid for the land bydoing milirary service . wh ile others paid rent. Thenob le kept "serfs" to work on his own land. T hesewere not free to leave the estate, and were oftenlittle better than slaves.

T he re were two basic princip les to feudalism: eve ryman had a lord. and every lord had land, T he kingwas connected through thi s "chain" of people tothe lowest man in the country. At each level a manhad to promise loyalty and service to his lord. Th ispromise was usually made with the lord sitting onhis chair and h is vassal kneel ing before him, h ishands placed between those of his lord. This was

24

The greashall in Casrle Headingham, built in 1140. gil'f!S anidea of !heinside ofa Normancasde. The floor was coveredwirh rushes or reeds, cur from a nearby marsh or u.!edandarea. The walls were decorated withU!OlIt't1 woollenembroidered hangi"Ks. for which England ucs famou.s. !hefumilUre is of a muchlarer dare. 1n Norman times there U'a5

probably a large btd simple table and chair ffTf rhe lord of rhecastle. Others Sflf on benches, or mighr haw stood for meals.

A thirreenth~cenlury knighr pays homllge. Thenobilil) of Britain srillpay homlIge UJ lhesOl'tTeign during lhe coronation ceremony, ElItTsince rheMiddle Ages, wesr European ChrisrianshalOf' wed !hefeudal homage pcsmon u,henpraying. a reminder of their relatiaruhip UJ God,rheir lord andprceectc-.

called "homage" , and has rem ained parr of thecoronation ce remony of British kings and queensunti l now. O n the othe r han d , each lord hadresponsibilities to his vassals. He had to give themland and protec tion.

When a nobl e d ied his son usually roo k o ver h isestate. But first he had to receiv e permission fromthe king and make a spec ial pay ment. If he was stilla ch ild the king wou ld often ta ke the pro duce ofth e esta te un ti l the boy was o ld eno ugh to lookafte r the estate himself. In th is way the king couldbene fi t from the death of a noble. If a ll the nob le'sfamily died th e land went back to the king, wh owould be expected to give it to anothe r deservin gnoble. But the king often kep t th e land for someyears. using its wea lth. before giving it to anot hernoble.

If the king di ll not give the no bles land they wouldnot fig h t for him. Between 1066 and the mid ­fourteenth ce ntury there were only thirty years ofcomplete peace . So feudal duties were extreme lyimportant. The king had to make sure he hadenough satisfied nobl es who would be will ing totighr for h im.

W illiam gave o ur land all over England to hisnob les, By 1086 he wanted to kn ow exac tly whoowned whic h piece of land. and how much it wasworth. He needed this information so rhar he couldplan his eco no my. find our how much was producedand how much he co uld ask in tax. He thereforesent a team of peop le all through England to makea complete economic survey. His men asked allkinds of questions at eac h set tlement: How muchland was there ? \'(fho own ed it? How much was itworth ? How many famil ies, ploughs and sheep werethere? A nd so on. This survey was the only one ofits kind in Europe. Not surprising ly, it was mostunpopu lar with the people, because th ey fe lt th eycould not escape from its findings. It so remindedthem of the paint ings of the Day of Judgement, or"doo m". on the walls of thei r churches that theycalled it the "Domesday" Book. T he na me stuc k.The Do mesday Book still ex ists, and gives us anexrraordina rv amoun t of info rrna rio n about Englandat this rime.

4 Conquest and feudal rule

Kingship: a family businessTo understand the idea of kin gship and lordsh ip inthe early Midd le Ages it is important to rea lise thatat th is time there was little or no idea ofnation alism. W illiam controlled two large areas:Nor ma ndy, whi ch he had been given by hi s fa th er ,and Englan d, wh ich he had won in war. Bot h werepersonal possessions, and it did not matter to therul ers th at the ordinary peop le of o ne p lace wereEng lish wh ile those of another were French . ToW illiam the importan t diffe rence betweenNor ma ndy and Eng land was tha t as duke ofNorma ndy he had to recogn ise the k ing of Fran ceas hi s lord, wh ereas in England he was king wit h nolord abo ve him .

When Wi lliam d ied , in 1087, he left the Duchy ofNorma ndy to h is cid er son , Robert. He gaveEngland to hi s second son , W illiam, known as"Rufus" (Lat in for red) because of hi s red hai r andred face. W hen Roberr went to fight th e Muslims inth e Holy Lan d, he left W illiam 11 (Rufus) in chargeof Norma ndy. Afte r a ll, th e manageme n t ofNormandy and England was a family business.

Wi ll iam Rufus d ied in a hunting acc ide n t in 1100 ,shot dead hI' an arrow . He had not marri ed , andtherefore had no son to take the crown . At thet ime of William 's death , Roberr was on hi s wayhom e to Normandy fro m the Holy Lan d . Theiryounger brother. Henry. knew that if he wantedthe Eng lish crown he wou ld have to act veryquick ly. He had been with W illiam at the time ofthe acc ident . He rod e to Winchester and tookcharge of the king's treasury. He then rode toWe stminster. where he was crowned king threeda ys later. Roberr was very an gry and prepa red to

invade. Blit it rook him a year to organise an army.

The Norma n nohles in England had to cho osebetween Hen ry and Roher r. T his was not easybecause most of them held land in Normandy too .In the end they chose Henry because he was inLondon, with the crown already on his head.Robcrr's invasion was a failure and he acce ptedpayment to return to Normandy . But Henry wantedmore. He knew tha t many of his nobles wouldwillingly follow him to Normandy so that they

25

An Illustrated History of Britain

D tands inherited rrom hisfather, GeotlreyPlantagenet. countot AnJOu

•lands inherited from jusmother, Queen Matllda01England

O landsgaIned by hismarriage to Eleanor01AqUlta,ne

O lands gained by hISsonGeollrey's marriage toconstarce 01Bnttany

O lands belongIngto, anddlrecltyruled by, theFrench king

O lands which recognisedthe French kIngas overlord

- boundary orHenry u'sFrench lands

Hemy 1/ '$ clllpire.

could win back their Nor man lands. In 11 06 Henryinvaded Normandy and captured Roberr.Nor mandy and England were reunited und er oneruler.

Henry l's most important aim was to pass on bothNor mandy and England to his successor. He spentthe rest of his life fight ing tn keep Normandy fromother Fren ch nobles who tr ied to take it. But in1120 Henry 's on ly son was drowned at sea.

During the next fifteen years Henry hoped forano the r son but fi nally accep ted tha t his daughter,Marilda, would follow him . Henry had marriedMarilda to anot her great noble in France, GeoffreyPlan tagen et , Ge offrey was heir to Anjou, a largeand important area southwest of Normandy. Hen ryhoped tha t the family lands wou ld be made largerby th is marr iage. He made all the nobles promise toacce pt Matilda when he died. But then Henryhimself qua rrelled publicly with Mari lda's husband ,and died soon after. This left the succession inquestion .

26

At the t ime both the possible heirs to Henry wereon their own esta tes. Marilda was with her husbandin Anjou and Hen ry's nephew. Srephen of Blois,was in Boulogne, only a day's journey by sea fromEngland . As Henry had done before him , Stephenraced to England to claim the crown. Al so asbefore, the nobles in England had to choosebetween Stcphen, who was in England, andMarilda. who had quarrelled with her fathe r andwho was st ill in France. Most chose Srephc n, whoseems to have been good at fighti ng but littl e else.He was described at the time as "of outstandingskill in arms, but in othe r things almost an idiot ,except that he was more incl ined towards evil."O nly a few nob les supported Mat ilda 's claim.

Mar ilda invaded England four years later . Her fightwith Stephen led to a te rrible civil war in whichvillages were destroyed and many peop le we re

killed. Neit her side could win, and finally in 11 53Marilda and Srephcn agreed tha t Stephen couldkeep the throne but only if Marilda's son , Henry,could succee d him . Fortunatelv for England,Srephen died the following year, and th e familypossessions of England and the lands in France wereunited under a king accepted by eve ryone. It tookyears for England to recover from the civil war. Assomeo ne wrote at the time, "For nin eteen longwint ers, God and his ang els slept. " This kind ofdisorder and destruction was common in Europe,but it was shocking in England beca use people wereused to the rule of law and order.

Henry 1I was the fi rst unquestioned ruler of theEnglish throne for a hundred years. He destroyedthe castles wh ich many nob les had built withou troyal permission during Srephen's reign , and madesure that they lived in manor houses that wereundefend ed. The manor again became the centre ofloca l life and admin istra t ion .

Henry 1I was ruler of far more land than anyprevious king . As lord of A njou he adde d h isfather's lands to the fami ly empire. Afte r hismarriage to Eleanor of Aqu itaine he also ruled thelands south of Anjou. Henry ll 's empi re stretchedfrom the Scott ish border to th e Pyren ees.

4 Conquest and feudal rule

Four kJnRs of the early MiddleAges: (top row) Henry fI, Richard1, (bonorn TOW) John mul Henry111. Richard's shieldcarries thebeulge of the English kings. Thefhree gold lilms (called "leupards"in heraldic language) on a red fieldstillform fWO of fhe four"qlUlrrers" of the Royal Standardor shield wJay.

England prov ided most of Henry' s wealth , but theheart of his empire lay in Anjou. And althoughHenry recognised the king of France as the overlordof all his French lands, he actually con trolled agreater area tha n the kin g of France. Man y ofHenry's nob les held land on both sides of theEnglish channel.

However, Henry quarrelled with his beautifu l andpowerful wife, and h is sons, Richard and John , tookEleanor's side. It may seem surprising that Richardand Joh n fought against their own father. But infact they were doing their dut y to the king ofFrance, their feudal ove rlord, in payment for thelands they held from him . In 11 89 Henry died abroken man, disappointed and defeated by his sonsand by the French king.

Henry was followed by his rebell ious son, Rich ard .Richard I has always been one of England's most

popular kings, although he spent hardly any t ime inEngland . He was brave, and a good soldier, but hisnickname Coeur de Lion, " lionheart ", shows tha this culture, like that of the kings before him , wasFrench . Rich ard was everyone's idea of the perfectfeuda l king. He went to the Holy Land to make waron the Muslims and he fought with skill, courageand honour.

On his way back from the Ho ly Land Rich ard wascaptured by the duke of Au str ia, with whom he hadquarrelled in Jerusalem. The duke dem anded moneybefore he would let him go, and it took two yearsfor England to pay. Shortly afte r, in 1199, Richardwas killed in France . He had spent no more tha nfour or five years in th e count ry of which he wasking. W hen he died the French king took overparts of Rich ard's French lands to rule him self.

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An Illustrated History of Britain

Richard had no son, and he was followed by hisbrother, John. John had already made himselfunpopu lar with the three most important groups ofpeop le , the nobles, the mercha nt s and the C hurch.

John was unpopular mainl y because he was greedy.The feudal lords in England had always run rheirown law courts and profited from the fines paid bythose brought to court. But John took many casesout of thei r courts and tried them in the king'scourts , taking the mone y for himself.

It was nor mal for a feudal lord to make a paymentto the king when his daughter was marri ed, butJohn asked for more than was the custom . In thesame way, whe n a noble died , h is son had to paymoney before he could inherit h is fathe r's land. Inorder to en large his own income, John increasedthe amount they had to pay. In other cases when anob le died with ou t a son, it was norm al for the landto be passed on ro.anorher nob le family. Joh n keptthe land for a long time, to benefit from its wealth .He did the same with the bishoprics. As for th emerch ants and towns, he taxed them at a higherlevel than ever before .

In 1204 King Joh n became even more unpopularwith his nob les. T he French king invadedNormandy and the English nobles lost their landsthere. John had failed to ca rry out his duty to the mas duke of Normandy. He had taken their moneybut he had not protected the ir land.

In 1209 John quarrelled with the pope ove r whoshould be Arc hbishop of Can terbury. John was in aweak posit ion in England and the pope knew it.T he pope ca lled on the king of France to invadeEngland , and closed every church in the country.A t a time when most people believed that withoutthe C hurch they would go to hell , thi s was a veryserious matt er. In 1214 John gave in , and acceptedthe pope's choice of archbishop.

In 1215 John hoped to recapture Normandy. Heca lled on his lords to fi ght for him, but they nolonger truste d hi m. They march ed to London ,where they were joined by angry merch ant s.Outside Londo n at Runnymede, a few miles up theriver. John was forced to sign a new agree me n t.

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Magna Carta and the decline offeudalismThis new agreemen t was known as "Magna Carta" ,the Great Charte r, and was an important symbol ofpoli tical freedom. The king promised all "freemen"protect ion from his officers, and the right to a fairand legal trial. At the time perhaps less than onequarter of the English were "free rne n". Most werenot free, and were serfs or littl e better. Hundreds ofyears later , Magna C arta was used by Parl iament toprotect itself from a powerful king. In fact MagnaCa rta gave no real freedo m to the majori ty ofpeople in England . The nobles who wrote it andforced King John to sign it had no such th ing inmind . They had one main aim: to make sure Johndid not go beyond h is rights as feuda l lord.

Magna Carta marks a clear stage in the co llapse ofEnglish feudalism. Feudal society was based on linksbet ween lord and vassal. At Runnvmede the nobleswere not acting as vassals but as a class. T heyestablished a committee of twenty-four lords to

make sure John kept his promises. T hat was not a"feudal" th ing to do. In addit ion , th e nob les wereacting in co-operation with the merch ant class oftowns.

T he nobles did not allow John's successors to forgetth is charter and its promises. Every king recognisedMagna Carta, until the Middle Ages ended indisorder and a new kind of mon arch y came intobeing in the sixteenth century.

There were other small signs that feudalism waschanging. When the king went to war he had therigh t to forty days' fighting service from each of hislords. But forty days were not long enough forfighting a war in France. T he nob les refused to fightfor lon ger , so the king was forced to pay soldiers tofight for him . (T hey were called "paid fighters" ,snUdari"s, a Latin word from which the word"soldier" comes. ) At the same time many lordspreferred the ir vassals to pay them in money ratherthan in services. Vassals were gradually beg inningto change into tenants . Feudalism. the use of landin return for service. was beginn ing to weaken . Butit took anot her three hundred years before itdisappeared completely.

5 The power of the kings of EnglandC hurch and state' The beginnings of Parliament· Dealing with theC elts

Church and stateJohn 's reign also marked the end of the longstruggle between C hurch and sta te in England.This had begun in 1066 when the pope claimedthat Wi lliam had promised to accept him as hisfeudal lord. William refused to accept th is cla im.He had created Norman bishops and given themland on condition that they paid homage to him .As a result it was not clea r whethe r the bishopsshould obey the C hurch or the king. T hose kingsand popes who wished to avo id conflict left thematter alone. But some kings and popes wanted to

increase the ir autho rity. In such ci rcumstancestrouble could not be avo ided.

The struggle was for bot h power and money. Duringthe eleventh and twe lfth centuries the Churchwanted the kings of Europe to accept its aut horityover both spiritual and earthly affairs, and arguedthat even kings were answerab le to God. Kings, onthe other hand , chose as bisho ps men who wouldbe loyal to them.

The first serious quarrel was between W illiam Rufusand An selm, the man he had made Archb ishop ofCante rbury. Anselm, with seve ral other bishops ,fearing the king, had escaped from England . AfterWilliam's death Anselm refused to do homage to

William's successor , Henry I. Henry, meanwhile,had created several new bishops but they had nospiritual authority without the blessing of thearchbishop. This left the king in a difficul t position .It took seven years to settle the disagreement.Finally the king agreed tha t only the C hurch couldcreate bishops. But in retu rn the C hurch agreedthat bishops would pay ho mage to the king for thelands owned by their bishoprics. In pract ice the

wishes of the king in the appointmen t of bishopsremained important. But afte r Anselrn's deathHenry managed to delay the appoint ment of a newarchbishop for fi ve years whi le he benefited fromthe wealth of Canterbury. T he struggle betweenC hurch and state continued.

The crisis came when Henry Il's friend ThomasBecket was appointed Archbishop of Canterbury in1162. Henry hoped that T homas would hel p himbring the C hurch more und er h is control. At fi rstBecket refused , and then he gave in . Later hechanged his mind again and ran away to France ,and it seemed as if Henry had won. But in 1170Becker returned to England determined to resist theking. Hen ry was very angry, and four knights whoheard hi m speak out went to Canterbury to murderBecker. They killed him in the holiest place in thecat hedra l, on the altar steps .

A ll Christ ian Europe was shocked , and T homasBecket became a saint of the Church. For hundredsof years afterwards people not only from Englandbut also from Europe travelled to Canterbury topray at Becket 's grave . Henry was forced to ask thepope 's forgiveness. He also allowed himself to bewhip ped by monks. T he pope used the event to

take back some of the C hurch's privileges. ButHen ry \I could have lost much more tha n he did.Luckily for Henry, the nobles were also involved inthe argument , and Henry had the nobles on hisside. Usually the C hurch preferred to suppor t theking against th e nobles, but expec ted to berewarded for its support . King John's mistake fortyyears later was to upset bo th Ch urch and nob les atthe same time.

29

An Illustrated History of Britain

The beginnings of ParliamentKing John had signed Magna Ca rta unwilling ly,and it quickly became cleat that he was not goingto keep to the agreement . The nob les rebelled andsoon pushed John out of the southeast. But civ ilwar was avoided because John died suddenly in1216.

Joh n's son , Henry Ill , was on ly nine years old.Durin g the first sixteen years as king he was und erthe con trol of powerful nob les, and tied by MagnaCa rta .

Henry was finally able to rule for him self at theage of twenty-five. It was und erstandable that hewanted to be completely independen t of the peop lewho had controlled h is life for so long. He spen t histime with foreign friends, and became involved inexpensive wars supporting the pope in Sicily andalso in France .

Henry's heavy spending and his fore ign adv isersupset the nob les, O nce again they acted as a class,unde r the leadership of Simon de Monr forr , earl ofLeicester. In 1258 they took over the governmentand electe d a cou nc il of nobles. De Montfort ca lledit a parliament, or parlement, a French word meaninga "discussion meet ing". This "parliament" too kcontrol of the treasury and forced Henry to get ridof his foreign adv isers. The nohles were supportedby the town s, wh ich wished to be free of Henry'sheavy taxes.

But some of the nobles did not support therevolutionary new counc il, and remained loyal toHenry . With their help Henry was finally able todefeat and kill Simon de Monrfort in 1265. Onceagain he had full royal aut hor ity, although he wascareful to acce pt the balance which de Mon tforthad created between king and nobles, Whe n Henrydied in 1272 his son Edward I took the thro newitho ut quest ion.

Edward I's parliament Edward sits infront of his nobles, bishops and shireknights . Onhis right sits Alexander,kingof Scots , and on his left isUewelyn, Prince of Wales. It isunlikely eiM e\'t'T sat in Edward'sparliament, bur he liked to think ofthem as under his authority. Be,ondAlexander and Uewelynsit [hearchbishops ofCanleTbury and York,and [heTe are more bishops on the leftof the picture, a reminder of thepolitical andeconomicstrength of theChurch os rhis time. Inthe centre arewool5acks, symbolic of England'swealth.

30

Edward I brought togethe r the fi rst real parliament .Simon de Monrforr's counc il had been called aparl iament, but it included on ly nob les, It hall beenable to make statutes, or written laws, and it hadbeen able to make poli tical decisions. However , thelords were less able to provide the king with money,except what they had agreed to pay hi m for thelands they held under feuda l arra ngement . In thedays of Henry I ( 1100- 35),85 per cent of theking's income had come from the land. By 127Zinco me from th e land was less than 40 per cent ofthe royal incom e. The king could on ly raise the restby taxation . Since the rules of feudalism did notinclude taxation, taxes could on ly be raised withthe agreement of those wealthy enough to be taxed .

Several kings had made arrangements for taxationbefore, but Edward I was the first to create a"representative institution" wh ich could providethe money he needed. This institution becam e theHouse of Commons. Un like the House of Lords itconta ined a mixture of "gentry" (kn ights and otherwealthy freemen from the sh ires) and merch antsfrom the town s. T hese were the two broad classes ofpeople who produ ced and controlled England 'swealth.

In 1275 Edward I commanded each sh ire and eachtown (or borough) to send two representatives tohis parliame nt . These "com moners" would havestayed away if they could, to avo id giving Edwardmoney. But few dared risk Edward's anger. T heybecame unwi lling repre sentatives of the ir localcommunity. This, rather than Magna Cart a, wasthe beginning of the idea that th ere should be "notaxation with out representation". later claimed bythe American colon ists of the eighteenth cen tury.

In other parts of Europe , similar "pa rliament s" keptall the gentry separate from the commoners.England was special because the House ofCommons contained a mixture of gentry belongingto the feudal ruling class and merchants andfreemen who did not. The co-operation of thesegroups, through the House of Commons, becameimporta nt to Brita in's later political and socialdevelop ment. During the 150 years followingEdward's death the agreement of the Commons

5 The power of the kings of England

Hc1TlechUlSlle. one of several castles bui/l fry Eduoard 1in order W conrro!the north and uesr of Wales. Themountainous COUnfry of Snoudonia in thebackground U'(IS a place of safety for the Welshrebels. While it ucsexrremely chfficuI! for Edward re reach the rebels in thesemountains. it wasalsoimpossible forsuch rebels ever to capture castles as strong as Harlech.These hugely expensivecastles were so strong that tht'y persuaded the Welshrhat anorht'T rising against Englishrule was unlikely 10 succeed.

became nece ssary for the making of all sta tutes, andall special taxat ion additiona l to regular taxes.

Dealing with the CeltsEdward I was less interested in winning back part sof France than in bringing the rest of Britain underhis contro l.

W illiam I had allowed h is lords to win land byconquest in W ales. These Nonnans slowlyextended the ir control up the Wel sh river valleysand by the beginn ing of the twelfth century muchof W ales was held by them. T he y built castles asthey went forward, and mixed with and married theWel sh during the eleventh , twelfth and thi rtee nt hce nturies. A new class grew up, a mixture of theNorman and W elsh rulers, who spoke No rmanFrench and Welsh, but not English . They allbecame vassals of the English king.

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An Illustrated History of Britain

The on ly Wel sh who were at all free from Englishrule lived aro und Snowdon, the wild mounta ino usarea of north Wa les. They were led by Llewelyn apGruffvdd, pr ince of G wynedd, who tr ied to becomeindependent of the English. Edward was determinedm defeat him and bring Wa les completely under hiscontrol. In 1282 Llewelyn was captured and killed.Edward then began a programme of castle buildingwhich was extreme ly expensive and took manyyears to complete.

In 1284 Edwnrd uni ted west W ales with England,brin ging the English county system to the newlyconquered lands. But he did not interfere with theareas th e Nor mans had conquered earlier on theEnglish-Welsh border, because th is wou ld have ledto trouble with his nobles.

The English considered that Wales had becomepart of England for all pract ical purposes. If theWelsh wanted a prince , they cou ld have one. At apublic ceremony at Caernarfon Edward I made hisown baby son (later Edward 11 ) Prince of Wales.From that time the eldest son of the ruling kin g orqueen has usually been made Prince of Wales.

Ireland had been conquered by Norman lords in11 69. They had littl e difficulty in defeating theIrish kings and tribes. Henry 11 , afraid that his lordsmigh t becom e too independen t, we nt to Irelandhim self. He forced th e Irish ch iefs and Normanlords m accept his lordship. He did so with theauthority of the pope, who hoped m bring th e IrishCelt ic C hurch under his own control.

Henry 11 made Dublin , the old Viking town , thecapita l of h is new colony. Much of western Irelandremained in the hands of Irish ch iefs, whi leNorman lords governed most of the east. Edward Itook as much money and as man y men as he couldfor his wars against the We lsh and Sco ts. As aresult Ireland was dra ined of its wealth . By 1318 itwas able to provide the English king with on lyone- th ird of rhe amount it had been able m give in1272. T he Nor man nobles and Irish ch iefs quietlyavo ided English aut hor ity as much as possible. As aresult , the English C rown on ly controlled Dublinand a small area around it, known as "the Pale".

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The Irish ch iefs continued to live as th ey alwayshad done, moving from place to place , and eat ingout of doors, a habit they on ly gave up in thesixtee nt h century. T he Anglo-lrish lords, on th eother hand, built strong stone castles, as the y haddone in Wa les. But they also became almostcomplete ly independ ent from the English Crown,and some became "more Irish tha n the Irish".

In Sco tland thi ngs were very different . AlthoughScott ish kings had sometimes accepted the Englishkin g as the ir "ov erlord", th ey were much strongerthan the man y We lsh kings had been . By theeleventh century there was only one king of Scots ,and he ruled over all the south and east of Scot -land. O nly a few areas of the western coas t werest ill completely independ en t and these all cameund er th e king's control during the twelfth andthi rteenth centuries. In Ireland and W ales Normankn ights were strong enough to fight local ch iefs onth eir own. But only the English king with a largearmy cou ld hope to defeat the Scots. Most Englishkings did not not eve n try, but Edward I was different.

The Sco tt ish kings were closely connected withEngland. Since Saxon times, marriages hadfrequently taken place betwee n the Sco tt ish andEnglish royal families. At the same time, in orderm establ ish strong government, the Scott ish kingsoffered land to Norman knights from England inreturn for their loyalty. Scotland followed Englandin creat ing a feudal sta te . On the whole C elticsociety accepted thi s, probably because theNormans married into local Celt ic noble families.The feudal system, however, did not develop in theHighlands, where the tribal "clan" systemcont inued. Some Sco ttish kings held land inEngland, just as English kings held lands in France.And in exactly the same way they did homage,promising loyalty m th e English king for that land.

In 1290 a crisis took place over the succession mthe Scott ish thro ne . T he re were thirteen possibleheirs. Among these the most likely m succeed wereJohn de Ball iol and Robert Bruce, both Norman­Sco tt ish knigh ts. In order to avoid civil war theSco tt ish nobles invited Edward I m settle th ematt er.

Edward had already shown interest in joiningScotland to h is kingdom. In 1286 he had arrangedfor his own son to marry Marga ret, the heir to theScottish throne, but she had died in a sh ipwreck.Now he had anot her cha nce. He to ld both menthat they must do homage to him , and so accept hisoverlordsh ip, before he wou ld help settle thequestion . He then invaded Sco tland and put one ofthem, John de Ball iol , on th e Sco ttish throne .

De Balliol's four years as king were not happy. First ,Edward made him provide money and troops forthe English army and the Scottish nob les rebelled.Then Edward invaded Scotland again, and capturedall the main Scottish castles. During the invasionEdward sto le th e sacred Sto ne of Dest iny fromScone Ab bey on which , so the legend said, allScott ish kings must sit. Edward believed th atwithout the Stone , any Sco tt ish coro nation wouldbe mean ingless, and tha t his own possession of theStone would persuade the Sco ts to accept hi m asking. However, neither he nor his successorsbecame kings of Sco ts, and the Sco tt ish kingsmanaged perfectly well without it .

Edward' s treatm ent of the Scots create d a popularresistanc e movement . At fi rst it was led by W illiamWallace, a Norman-Scott ish knight. But afte r onevictory against an English army, Wallace's "people'sarmy" was itself destroyed by Edward in 1297. TheScots had formed rings of spearmen which stoodfirm against the English cavalry attacks, butEdward's Wel sh longbowmen broke the Scotti shformations, and the cavalry then charged down onthem .

It seemed as if Edward had won afte r all. Hecaptured Wallace and executed hi m, putt ing hishead on a pole on London Bridge. Edward tried tomake Sco tland a part of England , as he had donewith Wales. Some Sco tt ish nob les accepted h im,but the people refused to be ruled by the Englishking. Scottish nationalism was born on the dayWallace died.

A new leade r took up th e struggle. T h is was RobertBruce, who had competed with John de Balliol forthe th ron e. He was able to raise an army and defeatthe English army in Sco tland. Edward I gathe red

5 The power of the kings of England

ano the r great army and march ed against RobertBruce , bur he died on the way north in 1307. O nEdward' s grave were written the words "Edward, theHammer of the Sco ts" . He had intended tohamm er th em into the ground and dest roy them,but in fact he had hamm ered them into a nation .

After his death his son , Edward 11 , turned back toEngland . Bruce had time to defeat his Scottishenemies, and make himself accepted as king of theScots. He the n began to win back the castles st illheld by the English . Whe n Edward 11 invadedSco tland in 1314 in an effort to help the lastEnglish-held castles, Bruce destroyed h is army at

Bannockburn, near St irling. Six years later, in1320, the Sco ts clergy meeting at Arbroarh wroteto th e pope in Rome to te ll h im that they wouldnever accept English authority: "for as long as evenone hundred of us remain alive, we will neve rconsent to subject ourselves to the dominion of theEnglish ."

Edward "s cororuttion dUlir. The Scouish Stone of Destiny which Edwardcookfrum Scone Abbey is under the seat. a s)'mbo/ of Engkmd's desire 10

rule Sc()/kma. On eilher .~iJe of thethrone sl£lnd the symbolic sfate sword andshield of Eaward Ill.

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6 Government and societyThe growth of government · Law and justice' Religious beliefs'Ordinary people in country and town ' T he growth of towns as centres ofwealth· Language, literature and culture

The growth of governmentW illiam the Conqueror had governed England andNormandy by travelling from one place to anotherto make sure that his author ity was accepted. He,and the kings afte r him , raised some of the moneythey needed by trying cases and fining people in th eroyal courts. The king's "househ old" was th egovernment, and it was always on the move . The rewas no teal capita l of the kingdom as there is today.Kings were crowned in Westminste r, but the irtreasury stayed in the old Wessex cap ital,Winchester. When Will iam and the kings afte r himmoved around the co untry staying in towns andcastles, they were accompan ied by a large numberof followers. Wherever they went the local peoplehad to give them food and somewhe re to stay. Itcould have a terrib le effect . Food ran out, andprices rose .

T his form of gove rnment could on ly work well for asmall kingdom . By the time the English kings wereruling half of France as well they cou ld no longertravel everywhere themselves. Instead , they sentnobles and knigh ts from the royal household to actas sheriffs. But even th is system needed people whocould administe r taxation, justice , and cartI' out theking's instructions. It was obviously not practi calfor all these people to follow the king everywhere.At first th is "administration" was based inWi nchester, but by the time of Edward I, in 1290,it had moved to Westminste r. It is st ill there today.However, e ven thoug h the admin istration was inWestminster the real capi ta l of England was st ill "inthe king's saddle".

34

T he king kept all his records in Westm inster,including the Domesday Book. The king'sadministrat ion kept a careful watch on noblefamilies. It made sllte the king claimed moneyevery time a young noble took over the lands of hisfather, or when a noble's daughter married. Inevery possible way the king always "had his hand inhis subject's pocket". The administrat ion alsochecked the towns and the potts to make sure thattaxes were paid , and kept a reco rd of the fines madeby the king's court.

Most important of all, the officials in Westminsterhad to watch the econo my of the country carefully.Was the king gett ing the mon ey he needed in themost effecti ve way? Suc h quest ions led to importantcha nges in taxation between 1066 and 1300. In1130 well over half of Henry I's mon ey came fromhis own land, one-th ird from his feudal vassals inrights and fi nes, and only one-seventh from taxes.O ne hundred and fifty years later, over half ofEdward Its money came from [axes, but on ly one­third came from his land and only one-tenth fromhis feudal vassals. It is no wond er that Edwardca lled to his parliament representati ves of thepeop le whom he cou ld tax most effectively.

It is not surprising, either, that the admin istrat ionbegan to grow very quickly. When W illiam Iinva ded Britain he needed on ly a few clerks tomanage h is paperwork. Most business, includingfeudal homage, was done by the spoken , notwritten, word. But the need for paperwo rk grewrapidly. In 1050 only the king (Edward th eConfessor ) had a seal with which to "sign" officialpapers. By the time of Edward I, just ove r two

hundred years later, even the poorest man wasexpec ted to have a seal in order to sign officialpapers, even if he could not read. From 11 99 theadministration in West minster kept copies of all theletters and documents that were sent out.

Th e amount of wax used for seals on official papersgives an idea of the rapid growth of the royal ad­ministration . In 1220, at the beginning of HenryIll 's reign , 1.5 kg were used each week. Forty yearslater , in 1260, thi s had risen to 14 kg weekly. Andgovernment administration has been growing eversince.

Law and justiceThe king, of course , was responsible for law andjustice. But kings usually had to leave theadministration of this important matter to someonewho lived close to the place where a crime wascommitted. In Saxon tim es every distr ict had hadits own laws and customs, and justice had oftenbeen a family matter. Afte r the Nor man Co nquestnobles were allowed to administer justice amongthe villages and peop le on th eir lands. Usually theymixed Norm an laws with the old Saxon laws. T heyhad freedom to act more or less as they liked. Moreserious offences , however, were tried in the king'scourts.

Henry I int roduced the idea th at all crimes, eventhose inside the family, were no longer only afamily matter but a breaking of the "king's peace".It was therefore the king's duty to try people andpunish the m. At fi rst the nobles acted for the kingon their own lands, but Henry wanted th e samekind of justice to be used everywhere. So heappointed a number of judges who trave lled fromplace to place administe ring justice. (T hesetravelling, or "circuit" , judges st ill exist today. )They dealt both with crimes and disagreementsover property. In thi s way the king slowly took overthe admin istration from the nobles,

At fi rst the king's judges had no special knowledgeor traini ng. T hey were simply trusted to usecommon sense. Many of them were nobles orbishops who followed directl y the orders of theking. It is not surprising that th e quality of judges

6 Government and society

depended on the cho ice of the king. Henry 11 , themost powerful English king of the twelfth century,was known in Europe for th e high standards of hislaw courts. "The convinci ng proof of our king'sstrength, " wrote one man. "is that whoever has ajust cause wants to have it tried before him ,whoever has a weak one does not come unless he isdragged."

By the end of th e twelfth century the judges weremen with real knowledge and expe rience of thelaw. Na turally these judges, travelling from place to

place, administered the same law wherever theywent. This might seem obvious now, but sinceSaxon times local customs and laws had varied fromone place to ano the r. The law admin istered bythese travelling judges beca me known as "commonlaw", because it was used everywhere.

England was unlike the rest of Europe because itused co mmon law. Centuries later. England'scommon law system was used in the United States(the North Amer ican colonies) and in many ot herBritish colon ial possessions, and accepted whenthese became nat ions in their own right. In ot herparts of Europe legal practice was based on the C ivilLaw of the Roman Empire, and th e Canon Law ofthe C hurch. But although English lawyers referredto these as examples of legal method and science ,they created an entirely differen t system of lawbased on custom. co mparisons. previous cases andprevious decisions. In thi s way tradit iona l local lawswere replaced by common law all ove r the land.This mixture of experience and custom is the basisof law in England even today. Modern judges st illbase their decisions on the way in which similarcases have been dec ided.

T he new class of judges was also interested in howthe law was carried out , and what kinds ofpun ishme nt were used. From Anglo-Saxon timesthe re had been two ways of decidin g difficul t caseswhen it was not clear if a man was innocen t orguilty. The accused man could be tested in battleagainst a skilled fighter, or tested by "ordeal". Atypical "ordeal" was to put a hot iron on the man'stongu e. If the burn mark was st ill there three dayslater he was though t to be guilty . It was argued that

35

An Illustrated History of Britain

God would leave the bum mark on a guilty man 'stongue. Such a system worked on ly as lon g aspeop le believed in it. By the end of the twelfthcentury there were serious doubts and in 1215 thepope forbade the C hurch to have anyth ing to dowith trial by orde al.

In England tr ial by ordeal was replaced with trial byjury. The jury idea dat ed back to the Danes ofDanelaw, but had only been used in disputes overland. Henry 11 had already int roduced the use ofjuries for some cases in the second half of thetwelfth century. But it was not the kind of jury weknow today. In 1179 he allowed an accused man incertain cases to claim "trial by jury" . Th e mancould choose twelve neighbours, " twelve good menand true" . who would hel p him prove that he wasnot guilty. Slowly, during the later Middle Ages,the work of these juries gradually changed fromgiving evidence ro judging the ev idence of others.Juries had no tra ining in the law. They wereordinary people using ordinary common sense . Itwas soon obv ious that they needed guidance. As aresult law schools grew up during the thirteenthcent ury, producing lawyers who could advise juriesabout the point s of law.

Religious beliefsT he C hurch at local village level was sign ificantlydifferent from the politically powerful organ isationthe king had to deal with . At the time of W illiam Ithe ord inary village priest could hardl y read at all,and he was usually one of the peasant community.His church belonged to the local lord , and wasoften built next to the lord's house. Almost allpriests were married , and many inherited the irposition from thei r fathe r.

However, even at village level the C hurch wishedto replace the lord's author ity with its own, but itwas on ly partly successful. In man y places the lordco ntinued to choose the local priest. and to havemore influence over him than the more distantC hurch authorities were able to have.

T he Church also tried to prevent priests frommarrying, In th is it was more successful, and by theend of the th irtee nt h century married priests were

36

unu sual. But it was still common to find a priestwho "kept a girl in h is house who lit his fi re but putour his virtue."

T here were, however. many who promised not tomarry and kept that prom ise. T h is was parti cularlytrue of those men and wome n who wanted to bemonks or nuns and entered the local monastery ornunn ery. O ne reason for entering a religious housewas the increasing difficulty during this period ofliving on the land. As the population grew, moreand more people found they could not feed the irwho le family easily. If they could enter a son ordaughter into the local religious house there wouldbe fewer mouths to feed. Indeed, it may have beenthe economic difficulties of raising a family whichpersuaded priests to follow the C hurch ruling. Lifewas bette r as a monk within the safe walls of amonastery than as a poor farmer outs ide. A monkcould learn to read and write, and be sure of foodand shelter. The mon asteries were centres of wealthand learning.

In 1066 there were fifty religious houses in England,home for perhaps 1,000 mon ks and nuns. By thebeginn ing of the fourteenth century there wereprobably about 900 religious houses, with 17,500members. Even though the populat ion in thefourteenth ce ntury was three times larger than ithad been in 1066, the growth of the mon asteri es isimpressive.

T he thirteenth century brought a new movement ,the "brotherhoods" of friars. These friars werewandering preach ers. They were interested not inChurch power and splendo ur, but in the souls ofordinary men and women . They lived with the poorand tried to bring th e comfort of C hristian ity tothem. They lived in contrast with the wealth andpower of the monaste ries and cathedra ls, the localcentres of the C hurch .

Ordinary people in country andtownThere were proba bly between I. 5 and 2 millionpeople living in England in 1066. T he DomesdayBook tells us that nine-tenths of them lived in the

countryside. It also tells us that 80 per cent of th eland used for farming at the beginn ing of thetwent ieth century was already being ploughed in1086. In fact it was not unt il the n ineteenthcentu ry that the cult ivated area becam e greaterthan the level recorded in the Domesday Book.

Life in the cou ntrys ide was hard . Most of thepopulat ion still lived in villages in southern andeastern parts of England. In the north and westthere were fewer people, and th ey often lived apartfrom each ot he r, on separate farms. Most peoplelived in the simplest houses. The walls were madeof wooden beams and st icks, fi lled with mud . Theroofs were made of thatch , with reeds or corn stalkslaid th ick ly and skilfully so that the rain ran offeasily. People ate cereals and vegetables most of thetime, with pork mea t for special occasions. T heyworked from dawn to dusk every day of the year,every year, unt il they were unable to work anylonger. Until a man had land of his own he wouldusually not marry. However, men and women oftenslept toge ther before marriage , and once a womanwas expecting a ch ild, the couple had no cho ice butto marry.

The poor were d ivided from their maste rs by thefeudal class system. T he basis of th is "manor ialsystem" was the excha nge of land for labour. Thelandlord expected the villagers to work a fi xednumber of days on h is own land , the "home farm" .The rest of the time they worked on their smallstrips of land, part of the village's "common land"on which they grew food for themselves and th eirfamily. The Domesday Book tells us that overthree-quarte rs of the count ry people were serfs.They were not free to leave th eir lord's service orhis land without permission. Even if they wanted rorun away, there was nowhere to run to. Anyway, aserf's life, under his lord's protec t ion, was betterthan the life of an unp rotected wanderer. Orderand protec tion, no matter how hard life might be,was always better than disorder, when peop le wouldstarve .

The manorial system was not the same all over thecoun try, and it did not stay the same th roughoutthe Middle Ages. T here were always differences in

6 Gove rnment and soc iety

the way the system worked between one estate andanot her, one region and another, and between oneperiod and ano ther. Local customs and both localand national economic pressures affected the waythings worked .

The manorial system is often thought to beNorman , but in fact it had been growing slowlythroughout the Anglo-Saxon period . T he Normansinherited the system and deve loped it to its fullestext ent . But the Normans were blamed for the badaspects of th e manorial system because they wereforeign masters.

In the early days of the Conquest Saxons andNormans feared and hated each ot he r. Forexample, if a dead body was found , the Saxons hadto prove that it was not the body of a murderedNorman. If they could not prove it, the Nor manswould burn the nearest village. The Norman rulingclass on ly really began to mix with and marry theSaxons, and consider themselves "English" rathe rthan French , afte r King John lost No rmandy in1204. Even then , dislike remain ed between therulers and the ruled.

Every schoo lch ild knows the story of Rob in Hood,which grew out of Saxon hatred for Norman rule.Accord ing to the legend Robin Hood lived inShe rwood Forest near Nottingham as a criminal or"ou tlaw", outside feudal society and the protect ionof the law. He sto le from the rich and gave to thepoor , and he stood up for the weak against thepowerful. His weapon was not the sword of noblesand knights, but the longbow, the weapon of thecommon man.

In fact, most of the story is legen d. The on ly th ingwe know is that a man called Roberr or "Robin"Hood was a wanted crimina l in Yorkshire in 1230.The legend was, however, very popular with th ecom mon peop le all through the fourteent h ,fifteenth and sixteenth cen turies, although theruling class greatly disliked it . Late r the story wascha nged. Robin Hood was described as a man ofnob le birth , whose lands had been taken by KingJohn. A lmost certa in ly this was an effort by theauthor ities to make Rob in Hood "respec table" .

37

An Illustrated Hisrorv of Britain

Left: Two Oil! of [welve p cnees iUumaling cheoccupationsof each month. abouI /280.Above left Febnwry: a man sifj cooking and warming his hours /ry thefire. Abutlt' him hang,smoked meat and sausages. probably his only meat for the u..in ter. In lheaU[umn most animalsu't'Te killed. andsmoked or salted re keep them from going bad. There ucs only enoughfood fa

keep breeding, animals aIi l/e through the "inter. Below left NO\'efnber: perhaps it is fhe sal~

manknocking acorns or nurs fruma tree forhis pigs fa eat. Thecomplere set of pictures SN)U,'S

mixedfanning, u·hich produced cereals. grapes for u.'ine and pigs.

Above: A UIOfl1an milks a COUI, tt.'hik lhecoo.' tenderly licks us cul/. Almost all thepopulatilm liwJ inthe cmlncry. bUl COU'S uere kepcby rl)u''flspeopk too. This Jmnesric scene furs a tow:hinggemlm essabout il.

Most landlords obtained the ir income directly fromthe home farm, and also from letting out some oftheir land in return for ren t in crops or money. Th esize of the home farm depend ed on how much landth e landlord chose to let out. In the twelfthcent ury, for example, man y landlords found it moreprofitable to let out almost all the home farm lands,and thus be paid in money or cro ps rathe r than inlabour. In fact it is from thi s period that the word"farm" comes. Each arrangement the landlord madeto let land to a villager was a "firrna": a fixed orsettled agreement.

By 1300 the popu lation was probably just ove r fourmillion (up to the nineteenth century figures canon ly be guessed at) , about three times what it hadbeen in 1066. This increase , of course, had aneffect on life in the count ry. It made it harder togrow enough food for everyone. T he situat ion wasmade worse by the No rmans' love of hunting. T heydrove the English peasants out of the forests, andpunished them severely if they killed any forestanimals. "The forest has its own laws. " wrote oneman bitterly, "based not on the common law of thekingdom, but on the personal wishes of the king."

38

T he peasants tried to farm more land . T hey drain edmarsh land , and tried to grow food on high groundand on other poor land. But much of this newlycleared land quickly became exhausted, because thesoil was too poo r, being eithe r too heavy or toolight and sandy. As a result , the effort to farm moreland could not match th e increase in populat ion ,and this led to a decline in individual family landholdings. It also led to an increase in the number oflandless labourers, to greate r povert y and hunger.As land became overused, so bad harvests becamemore frequent. And in the years of bad harvestpeople starved to death . It is a pattern cruellyfamiliar to many poor countries today. Am ongricher peop le, the pressure on land led to anincrease in its value, and to an increase in buyingand selling. Landowning widows found themselvescourted by land-hungry single men .

Unfortunately, agricultural skills improved littleduring this period. Ne ither peasants nor landlordshad the necessary knowledge or und erstanding todevelop the m. In addition, manorial lan dlords,equally int erested in good harvests, insisted th at thean imals of the peasan try grazed on the ir own landto enric h it during its year of rest. Many villagers

tried to increase their income by other act ivitiesand became blacksmiths, carpenters, tilers orshepherds, and it is from the thi rtee nth centurythat many villagers beca me known by their tradename.

Shortage of food led to a sha rp rise in prices at theend of the twelfth century. T he price of wheat, forexample, doubled between 1190 and 1200. A sheepthat cost four pence in 11 99 fetched ten pence in1210. Prices wou ld be h igh in a bad season, butcould suddenly drop whe n the harvest was spec iallygood. T his inflat ion weakened feudal t ies, wh ichdepended to a great extent on a steady economicsituation ro be workab le. T he smaller landedknights found it increasing ly difficult to pay forthe ir military duties. By the end of the thirteenthcentury a kn igh t's equipment, which had costfiftee n sh illings in the early twelfth century, nowcost more than three times this amount. A lthoughnobles and kn ights could get more money fromtheir land by paying farm labourers and receivingmoney ren ts than by giving land rent free in returnfor labour , many kn ights with smaller estatesbecame increasingly indebted .

We know about these debts from the records of the"Exchequer of the Jews" . The small Jewishcommunity in England earned its living by lendingmoney, and lived under royal protect ion. By thelate thirteenth century these records show a largenumbe r of kn ights in debt to Jewish money lenders.Whe n a knight was unable ro repay the mon ey hehad borrowed, the Jewish money len der sold theknight's land to the greate r landholding nobility.This did not please Edward I, who feared thegrowth in power of the greater nob ility as th eyprofited from the disappeara nce of smaller land­holders. He had wanted the support of the knightlyclass against the greater lords, and it was partly forthis reason tha t he had called on the m to berepresented in Parliament. No w he saw the dangerthat as a class they might become seriouslyweakened. T he Jews were midd lemen in aneconomic process whic h was the result of socia lforces at work in the coun tryside. Whi le th eeconomic function of the Jews in prov iding capi ta lhad been useful the y had been safe, but once thi s

6 Government and society

was no longer so, the king used popular fee lingagainst them as an excuse to expe l them. In 1290the Jewish com munity was forced to leave thecountry.

Feudalism was slowly dying out, but the cha ngesoften made landlords richer and peasants poore r.Larger landlords had to pay fewer feudal taxes,wh ile new taxes were demanded from eve ryone inpossession of goods and incomes. As a result manycould not afford to pay rent and so they lost theirland. Some of these landless people went to thetown s, wh ich offered a bett er hope for the future.

The growth of towns as centresof wealthEngland was to a very large degree an agricultura lsoc iety. Even in towns and ci ties , many of thoseinvolved in trade or industry also farmed smallholdings of land on the edge of town . In th is senseEngland was self-sufficien t. However, througho utthe Middle Ages England needed things fromabroad, such as salt and spices. Inside Englandthere was a good deal of trade between differentregions. Wool-growing areas, for example, importedfood from food-producing areas. However, it isharder to know the extent of this internal tradebecause it was less formal than international trade,and therefore less recorded.

We know more about internat iona l trade, wh ichwas recorded because the king ob ta ined aconsiderable income from customs dues. During theAnglo-Saxo n per iod most European trade had beenwith the Frisians in the Low Count ries, aro und themouth of the River Rh ine. Followin g the Vikinginvasions most trade from the ninth centuryonw ards had taken place with Scand inavia. By th eeleven th century, for example, English grain washighly valued in Norway. In return Englandimported Scandinav ian fish and ta ll t imber.However, by the end of the twelfth century thisAnglo-Scandinavian trade link had weakened.

This was the result of the Norman Conquest, afte rwhich England looked away from the northeast ,Scandinav ia and Ge rmany, and towards the south,France, the Low Coun tries, and beyond. The royal

39

An Illustrated History of Britain

family had links with Gascon y in southwest France,and this led to an important trade exchang e of winefor clot h and cerea l. However, easily the mostimportant link was once again with the LowCountries, and the basis of th is trade was wool.

England had always been famous for its wool , andin Anglo-Saxon times much of it had beenexported to the Low Coun tries. In order to improvethe manufacture of woollen cloth, Willi am theConqueror encouraged Flemish weavers and otherskilled workers from Normandy to settle inEngland . They he lped to establish new towns:Newcas tle, Hull, Boston, Lynn and ot hers. Thesesettlers had good connections with Europe and wereable to begin a lively trade . Howe ver, raw woolrather than finished cloth remained the mainexpo rt. As the European demand for wool stayedhigh, and since no other country could match thehigh qua lity of English wool, English exporterscould charge a price high above the productioncos t, and about twice as much as the price in thehome market. T he king taxed the export of rawwoo l heavily as a means of increasing his ownincome. It was easily England 's most profitab lebusiness. When Richard I was freed from hiscapt ivity, over half the price was paid in wool. As asymbol of England's source of wealth , a wool sackhas remained in the House of Lords ever since thi stime . Much of th e wool industry was built up by th emona steries, which kept large flocks of sheep ontheir great estates.

T he wool trade illustrates the way in which thetown s related to the countryside. "Chapmen" or"h ucksters" , travelling traders, would buy wool atparti cular vilIage markers. Then rhey took rhe woo lto town, where ir would be graded and bundled upfor export or for local spinn ing. Larger fairs, both intown and country, were important places wheretrade rs and producers met, and deals could bemade. These were not purely English affairs. For­eign mercha nts seeking high quality wool frequentlyattended the larger fairs.

Such trade activ ities could nor possibly have takenplace under the restrictions of feudalism. But townswere valuable centres to nobles who wanted to sell

40

their produce and to kings who wished to benefitfrom the increase in nat iona l wealth . As a result,the townspeople quickly managed to freeth emselves from feuda l t ies and interference. At theend of the Anglo-Saxon period th ere were on ly afew towns, but by 1250 most of England's townswere already establi shed .

Many towns stood on land belonging to feudallords. But by the twelfth century kings werediscouraging loca l lords from taking the wealth fromnea rby towns. T hey realised that towns cou ldbecome effect ive cent res of royal autho rity, tobalance the power of the local nobil ity. T he kin gstherefore gave "charters of freedom" to manytowns, freeing the inh abitants from feudal dut ies tothe local lord. T hese chatt ers, however, had to bepaid for , and kings sold th em for a high price. Butit was worth the money. Town s could now raisetheir own local taxes on goods coming in. Theycou ld also have their own courts, cont rolled by thetown merchants, on cond ition that they paid anannua l tax to the king. Inside th e town walls,people were able to develop social and economicorgani sations free from feuda l rule. It was thebeginnings of a middle class and a capitalisteconom y.

Within the towns and cities, society and theeconomy were mainl y controlled by "guilds" . Thesewere brotherhoods of different kind s of mercha nt s,or of skilled workers. The word "gui ld" came fromthe Saxo n word "gildan", to pay, because memberspaid towards th e cost of the brotherhood . T hemerchant guilds grew in the thirteenth century andincluded all the traders in any parti cular town.Under these guilds trade was more tightlycontrolled than at an y later period . At least onehundred guilds existed in the rhirr eenrh century,similar in some ways to our modern trade unions.T he right to form a guild was sometimes includedin a town's charter of freedom. It was from amongthe members of the guild that the town's leaderswere probably chosen. In the course of time entryinto these guilds became increasingly difficult asguilds tried to control a particu lar trade . In somecases ent ry was only open to the sons of guildmembers. In other cases ent ry could be obta ined by

paying a fee to cove r the cost of the train ing, orapprenticesh ip, necessary to maintain the highstandard of the trade.

During the fourtee nt h century, as larger townscontinued to grow. "craft" guilds came into being.All members of each of these guilds belonged to thesame trade or craft. The earliest craft guilds werethose of the weave rs in London and Oxford. Eachguild tried to protect its own trade interests.Members of these guilds had the righ t to prod uce,buy or sell the ir particular trade without having to

pay specia l town taxes . But members also had tomake sure that goods were of a certai n quality, andhad to keep to agreed prices so as not to und ercu tother guild membe rs.

In London the development of craft guilds wen tfurther than elsewhe re, with a rich upper level ofthe craft community, the so-called liverycompanies, controlling most of the affairs of th ecity. O ver the centuries the twelve main liverycompanies have developed into large finan cia linstitutions. Today th ey play an important part inthe govern ment of the C ity of London , and theyearly choice of its Lord Mayor.

Language, literature and cultureThe growth of literacy in England was closelyconnec ted with the twelfth -century Renaissance, acultural move ment which had fi rst started in Italy.Its influen ce moved northwards along the traderoutes, reaching England at th e end of th e century.This revo lut ion in ideas and learning brough t a newdesire to test religious faith against reason . Schoolsof learning were established in many town s andcities. Some were "grammar" schools independentof the C hurch , wh ile ot he rs were attached to acathedra l. A ll of these schoo ls taught Lat in,because most books were written in th is lan guage.Altho ugh it may seem strange for educat ion to bebased on a dead language , Latin was importantbecause it was the educa ted language of almost allEurope , and was therefore useful in the spread ofideas and learning. In spite of the dangers, th eChurch took a lead in the new int ellectu almovement.

6 Go vernment and society

In England two schoo ls of higher learning wereestab lished , the first at O xford and the second atCa mbridge, at the end of the twelfth century. Bythe 1220s these two un iversit ies were theintellectual leaders of the country.

Few could go to the universities. Most Englishpeople spoke neither Latin, the language of th eC hurch and of educat ion, nor French , the languageof law and of the Norman rulers. It was a long timebefore English became the language of the rulin gclass. Some French words became part of theEnglish language, and often kept a more politemeani ng tha n the old Anglo-Saxon words. Forexample, the word "cha ir" , which came from theFrench , describes a better piece of furniture th anthe An glo-Saxon word "stool". In the same way,the Anglo-Saxon word "be lly" was replaced inpolite society by the word "stomac h". OtherAn glo-Saxon words ceased to be used altogether .

MobQuad in Mer rcn College is the oldest of Oxford's famous"quadrangles", or w ur/yards. It was built in the fiTSl halfof thefourteenthcenrury. Almost all /he Oxford colleges were built roundqumwrangles, witha library on oneside (in MobQuad on the fiTSl floor on Ihe left), and livingareas for bvth masters andstudentson /he othersides. Me-ton Collegechapel, in thebackground, is the finest late four/eenth-cenlury example inOxf<Ad.

41

42

The late Middle Ages7 The century of war, plague and disorder

War with Scotland and France ' T he age of chivalry ' The century ofplagues' The poor in revolt· Heresy and orthodoxy

Th e fourteenth ce ntury was disastrous for Britain aswell as most of Europe , because of the effect of warsand plagues. Probably one -third of Europe' spopulation died of plague. Hardly anywhereescaped its effects.

Britain and France suffered , too, from the damage sof war. In the 1330s England began a long struggleagainst the French C rown. In France villages wereraided or destroyed by passing armies. France andEngland were exhausted economically by the cost ofmaintaining armies. England had the add ition alburden of fighting the Sco ts, and maintainingcontrol of Ireland and Wa les, bot h of wh ich weretrying to throw off English rule.

It is difficult to measure the effect s of war andplague on fourteenth-century Britain , except indeaths. But undoubtedly one effect of both was anincreasing cha llenge to aut hor ity. T he heavydemands made by the king on gentry andmerchants weakened the economic strengt h oftown and countryside but increased the polit icalstrength of the merchants and gent ry wheneverthey provided the king with money. The growth ofan alliance between merchants and gentry at th isrime was of the greatest impo rtance for laterpolitica l deve lopme nts, part icularly for the strengthof Parliament against the king in the seventeenth

The T ower of London has been a fortress, palace and prison. One (If itsear/it'srprisoners «us the French dukeof Or/cam, who was capnm:d at thebtlllle of Agincourl in /41 5 . He spent ru:enly-jiw yean in English priStJIU

Ix{ore he was rcnsomed He appears in (his p iCCIiTC, sealed in rhe NOTTJ\iInWhi te TOUlCT, gumckd by English soldiers. The\'(Ihire Tower itself was builttry WiUiam I lLi th slant brou.ght from Normandy. Behind the TOU 'ef isLon<Um Bridge, u11h houses btlilc upon it .

century, and also for the strength of society againstthe dangers of revolut ion at the end of theeighteent h century . Finally, the habit of warcrea ted a new class of armed men in thecoun tryside, in place of the old feuda l system offorty days' service. T hese gangs, in reality localprivate armies, damaged the loca l economy butincreased the nobles' ability to cha llenge theauthority of the C rown. Already in 1327 one kinghad been murdered by powerful nobles, and anotheron e was murdered in 1399. These murdersweakened respect for the Crown, and encouragedrepeated struggles for it amongst the king's mostpowerful relat ions. In the following cent ury a king,or a king's eldest son, was killed in 146 1, 1471,1483 and 1485. But in the end the nobles destroyedthemselves and as a class they disappeared.

War with Scotland and FranceEngland's wish to control Sco tland had suffered amajor setback at Bannoc kburn in 13 14. Man y ofthe English had been killed , and Edward 11 himselfhad been lucky to escape. After other unsuccessfulatt empts England gave up its claim to overlordsh ipof Sco tland in 1328. However, it was not longbefore the two countries were at war again, but thi st ime because of England's war with France .

The repea ted atte mpts of English kings to con trolScotland had led the Scots to look for allies. Afte rEdward I's atte mpt to take ove r Sco tland in 1295,the Scots turned to the obv ious ally, the king ofFran ce, for whom there were clea r advantages in analliance with Scotland. This "Auld [old] A lliance "

43

An Illustrated Hisrory of Britain

lasted into the sixteen th century. France benefitedmore than Sco tland from it, but both countriesagreed that whenever England attacked one ofthem, the ot her would make trouble beh indEngland's back . The alliance did not operate thewhole time. There were long periods when it wasnot needed or used.

England's troubles with France resulted from theFrench kin g's growing autho rity in France, and hisdetermination to control all his nobles, even thegreate st of them . France had suffered for centuriesfrom rebe llious vassals, and the two mosttroublesome were the duke of Burgundy and theEnglish king (who was still the king of France'svassal as duke of Aquitaine), both of whom refusedto recogni se the French king 's ove rlordsh ip.

To make his position stronger, the king of Francebegan to int erfere with England's trad e. Part ofAquitain e, an area called Gascon y, traded its finewines for England's corn and woollen clot h . Thistrad e was worth a lot of money to the EnglishC rown. But in 1324 the Frenc h king seized part ofGascony . Burgundy was England 's other majortrading partner, because it was thro ugh Burgundy' sprovince of Flanders (now Belgium) that almost allEngland's wool exports were made . Any Frenchmove to control these two areas was a direct threatto England's wealth. The king of France ttied to

make the duke of Burgund y accept his authority.To prevent th is, England threatened Burgund y witheconomic collapse by stopp ing wool exports toFlande rs. Th is forced the duke of Burgundy to makean all iance with England against France.

England went to war because it could not afford thedestruction of its trade with Flanders. It wasdifficult to persuade merchants to pay for warsagainst the Scots or the Welsh , from which therewas so little wealth to be gained . But the threat tothei r trade and wealth persuaded the rich merchantclasses of England tha t war against France wasabsolutely nece ssary. The lords, kn ights andfighting men also looked forward to the possibilityof winning riches and lands.

Edward HI declared war on France in 1337. Hisexc use was a bold one: he claimed th e righ t to the

44

Fren ch C rown. It is unlikely that anyone , exceptfor the English, took his claim very seriously, but itwas a good enough reason for starting a war. Thewar Edward began, later called the Hundred YearsWar, did not finally end until 1453, with the Eng­lish Crown losing all its possessions in Franceexcept for Ca lais, a northern French port .

At first the English were far more successful thanthe French on th e battlefield . The English army wasexperienced th rough its wars in Wales and inScotland. It had learnt the value of bein g lightlyarmed. and quick in mov ement. Its most importantweapon was the We lsh longbow, used by most ofthe ordinary footso ldiers. It was very effective onthe battlefield because of its quick rate of fire. Anexperienced man could fire a second arrow into theair before the first had reach ed its destination .Writers of the time talk of "clouds" of arrowsdarkening the sky. These arrows cou ld go throughmost armour . The value of the longbow was provedin two victories, at C recv in 1346 and at Poitiers in1356, wher e the French king hi mself was takenprison er. T he English captured a huge quanti ty oftreasure, and it was said that after the battle ofPoiriers every woman in England had a Fren chbracelet on her arm . The Fren ch king bought hi sfreedo m for £500,000, an enor mous amount ofmone y in those days.

By the treat y of Brerignv, in 1360, Edward III washappy to give up his claim to the French thronebecause he had re-estab lished control over areasprev iously held by the English Crown. T he Frenchrecogn ised his ownersh ip of all Aquitaine,including Gascon y; parts of Normandy andBrittany, and the newly captured port of C alais.But because the French king had on ly unwillinglyaccepted thi s situat ion the war did not end, andfighting soon began again. All thi s land, except forthe valuable coastal port s of C alais, C herbourg,Bresr, Bordeaux and Bayonne. was taken back byFren ch forces dur ing the next fifteen years. It was awarning that winning battles was a good deal easierthan winning wars.

True to the "Auld Alli ance" the king of Sco ts hadattacked England in 1346, but he was defeated and

taken pti soner. English forces ra ided as fat asEdinb urgh , dest roying and looting. However ,Edward III allowed the Fren ch to ran som the Scotsking Dav id and, sat isfied with his successes inFrance, Edward gave up trying to contro l th e ScotsCrow n . For a while th ere was peace, but thestruggle bet ween th e French and English kin gs overFrench territories was [0 co nt inue into the fifteenthcentury.

The age of chivalryEdward III and his eldest son , the Black Prince,were grea tly admired in England for their courageon the battle field and for their co urrlv manners.They became symbo ls of the "code of ch iva lry", theway in wh ich a perfect kni ght shou ld beh ave.During th e reign of Edward int erest grew in th elegendary King A rrhur. Arthur, if he ever ex isted,was probab ly a Cel tic ruler who fough t the Anglo­Saxons, but we know no thi ng more about him . Thefourtee n th-c en tu ry legend created around Arrhurincluded both the imagined magic and mystery ofthe Celts, and also the kni ghtly values of the courtof Edward Ill.

According to the code of chiva lry, the perfectknight fought for h is good name if insulted, servedGod and th e kin g, and defended any lady in need .These ideas were expressed in the legend of th eRound Table, around wh ich King Arr hnr and hisknigh ts sat as equals in holy brotherhood.

Edward int rodu ced the idea of ch iva lry in to hiscourt. O nce, a lady at cou rt acc ide ntally d roppedher garter and Edward III noticed some of hiscourtiers laugh ing at her. He picked up the garterand tied it to his own leg, saying in Fren ch , "Honisoir '1"i mal y pense," which meant "Let him beashamed who sees wrong in it. " From thi s strangeyet probably tru e story , the Order of the Garter wasfounded in 1348. Edward ch ose as members of theorder rwenrv-four kni ghts, th e same number thelegenda ry A rthu r had chosen. T hey met once ayear on Sr George's Day at Windsor Castle , whe reKing A rrhur's Round Table was supposed to have

7 The cen tury of war, plague and disorder

(/'1,.," - .~ ~

EdU'dTd 1lJ recenes his sword and shield fr(JJll the mythical SI George. This isa propaganda picture. As paeron saimof England. andof the Order of theGcrrer whkh EJward 11l has founded, SeGeorge is used in rhis way 10

ccmfinn EdwarJ's posmon.

been. The custom is still followed , and Hon; SoitQui Mal Y Pense is sti ll th e motto of th e roya lfamily.

C h ivalry was a usefu l way of persuad ing men tofight by creating th e idea that war was a nob le an dglorious thing. War could also, of co urse , beprofitable . But in fact cru elty, death , destructionand theft were th e reality of war, as th ey are today.The Black Prince , who was the livin g example ofch iva lry in England, was feared in France for hiscruelty.

45

An Illustrated History of Britain

\ ..,' ---

Knights, ,u.:cording to the idealsof chivalry, would fight to defend a lady'shonour. In peacetime knights fought oneagainst another in tournaments.Here a knight prepares to fight, and is handed his helmet and shield by hiswife and d,mghter. Dlherknights could recognise by the designon his shieldand on his horse's coat: !hat the rider uus Sir Geoffrey Lw treIl.

The century of plaguesThe year 1348 brought an event of far greaterimportan ce th an the creat ion of a new orde r ofchivalry, This was the terri ble plague, known as theBlack Death, wh ich reached almost every part ofBritain during 1348-9, Proba bly more than one ­third of the entire popul ation of Britain died, andfewer than one person in ten who caugh t theplague managed to survive it, Whole villagesdisappeared, and some towns were almostcompletely deserted until the plague itself died out ,

46

T he Black Death was ne ither the first naturaldisaster of the fourteenth century, nor the last ,Plagues had killed sheep and ot he r anima ls earlierin the century, An agricultural crisis resulted fromthe growth in populat ion and the need to producemore food, Land was no longer allowed to rest oneyear in three, which meant that it was ove r-used,resulting in years of famine when the harvest failed,This process had already begun to slow downpopu lat ion growth by 1300,

After the Black Death there were other plaguesduring the rest of the ce ntury which killed mostlythe young and heal th y. In 1300 the population ofBrita in had pro babl y been over four million . By theend of the ce nt ury it was probably hardl y half th atfi gure , and it only began to grow again in thesecond half of the fifteenth ce n tury. Even so, ittook until the seve nteent h cen tury hefore thepopulation reached four million again.

The dram ati c fall in populati on, however, was noten tirel y a bad th ing. A t th e end of the th irteenthcentury the sharp rise in prices had led anincreasing number of landlords to stop payingworkers for thei r labour, and to go back to serflabour in order to avoi d losses. In return villagerswere given lan d to farm, but th is tenanted land wasoften the poorest lan d of the man ori al esta te . A fte rthe Black Death th ere were so few people to workon the land that the remaining workers cou ld askfor mor e money for their labour. We know th ey didthis because the king and Parliament tried againand again to control wage increases. We also knowfrom these repeated effor ts that the y cannot havebeen successfu l. T he poor found that they co ulddemand more money and did so. Th is fina lly led tothe end of serfdo m.

7 The CCn[Uf)' of war, rlagtl~ and disorde r

Because of the shortage and expense of labo ur,lan dlords returned to the twelfth-century pract ice oflett ing o ut the ir land to energet ic free man farmerswho bit by bit added to th eir ow n lan d. In th etwelfth ce nt ury, however, th e practice of lett ingout farms had been a way of increasing theland lord's profits, Now it became a way of avo ldinglosses. Many "firma" agree ments were for a who lelife span , an d some for several life spans. By th emid -fifteenth ce nt ury few land lords had hom e far msat a ll. These smaller farm ers who rented th emanorial lands slowly became a new class, knownas the "yeomen". T hey became an important parrof the agricultura l econo my, and have alwaysremained so .

O ver all, agricultura l land product ion shrank, bu tthose who survived the d isasters of the fou rteenthce n tury enjoyed a grea te r share of the agricultu ra leconomy. Even for peasants life became morecomfortable. For th e first tim e th ey had eno ughmon ey to build more solid houses, in stone where itwas availabl e, in place of huts made of wood, mudand thatch .

There had bee n other economic cha nges during thefourteenth ce nt ury. The most important of th esewas th e replacement of wool by finished cloth as

The BIac.-kDt:a{h killed betueen ahalf andonc-thirduf {hepopukuiml of Britain.

47

An Illustrated History of Britain

England 's main export . Th is change was the naturalresult of the very high prices at whic h English woo lwas sold in Fland ers by th e end of the thirteenthcentury. Merchants decided they cou ld increasetheir profits further by buying wool in England athalf the price for which it was sold in Fland ers, andprodu ce finished cloth for export . This processsudden ly grew very rapidly after the Flemish clot hindustry itself collapsed dur ing the years 1320 to1360. Hundreds of skilled Flemings came toEngland in search of work . They were encouragedto do so by Edward III because there was a clea rbenefit to England in export ing a finished productrather than a raw material. The surname "Flerning"has been a co mmon one in England ever since,particularly in East Anglia, where many Flemingssettled .

At the beginn ing of the century England hadexported 30,000 sacks of raw wool but only 8,000lengths of clo th each year. By the middl e of thecentury it exported on ly 8,000 sacks of wool but50, 000 lengths of cloth , and by the end of thecentury thi s increased to well over 100 ,000. T hewool export towns declined . They were replaced bytowns and villages with fast-flowing rivers useful forthe new process of clean ing and treating wool.Much of the cloth making process, like spinni ng,was done in th e workers' own homes. Indeed, somany young women spun wool that "spinster"became and has rema ined the word for anunmarried woman.

The West Country, Wales, and Yorkshire in thenorth all did well from the change in c1othmaking.But Lond on remained much larger and rich er. Bythe late fourteenth centu ry its 50,000 inhabitantswere supported by trade with the outside world,especia lly the Baltic , Med iterranean and North Seaport s. Its nearest trade rival was Bristol.

48

The poor in revoltIt is surprising that the English never rebelledagainst Edward Ill. He was an expensive kin g at at ime when many people were miserably poor andsick with plagues. At th e time of the Black Deat hhe was busy with ex pensive wars against France andSco tland. The dem ands he made on merchants andpeasants were enormous, but Edward 1\1 handledthese people with skill.

Edward's grandson, Richard , was less fortu nate. Hebecame king on his grandfathe r's death in 1377because his father, the Black Prince, had died a fewmonths earlier. Rich ard 11 inherit ed the problems ofdiscontent but had neither th e diplomati c skill ofhis grandfather, nor the popu larit y of his father.Added to this he became king when he was onlyeleven , and so othe rs governed for him. In the yearhe became king, these adv isers introduced a taxpayment for eve ry person ove r the age of fifteen .T wo years later , thi s tax was enforced again . Thepeople paid .

But in 1381 thi s tax was enforced for a third timeand also increased to three t imes the previousamount. There was an immediate revol t in EastAnglia and in Kent , two of the rich er parts of thecountry. T he poorer parts of the country, the northand northwest , did not rebel. T h is suggests that inthe richer areas ordinary peop le had become moreaware and confident of their rights and th eir power.

The new tax had led to revolt, but there were alsoot he r reasons for discontent. T he landlords hadbeen trying for some time to force the peasants backint o serfdom, because serf labour was cheaper thanpaid labour. The leader of the revol t, Wat T vler,was the first to call for fair treatm ent of England'spoor peop le: HWe are men formed in Christ'slikeness," he cla imed, "a nd we are kept likeanimals." The peop le sang a revo lutio nary rhymesuggesting that when God created man he had notmade one man master over ano the r:

When Adam delved, and Eve span,Who was then the gentleman ?

The idea that God had created all peop le equalca lled for an end to feudalism and respect for

honest labour. But the Peasants' Revolt , as it wascalled, on ly lasted for four weeks. Durin g thatperiod the peasants took control of much ofLondo n. In fact the revo lt was not on ly by peasantsfrom the countryside: a number of poorerrownspeop le also revolted, suggesting that thediscontent went beyond the quest ion of feuda lservice. When Wat Tyler was killed, Rich ard 11skilfully quietened the angry cro wd. He promised to

meet all the peop le's dema nds, includin g an end toserfdom, and the peop le peacefully went home.

As soon as they had gone, Rich ard's positionchanged. A lthough he did no t try to enforce thetax, he refused to keep h is prom ise to give thepeasants th eir other demands. "Se rfs you are," hesaid, "and serfs you sha ll remain ." His officershunted down ot he r leading rebels and hangedthem. But th e danger of revolt by the angry poorwas a warning to the king, the nobles and to thewealth y of the c ity of London .

Heresy and orthodoxyTh e Peasants' Revolt was th e fi rst sign of growingdiscontent with the state. During the next centurydiscon ten t with the C hurch also grew. There hadalready been a few attacks on Ch urch property intowns controlled by the C hurch. In 1381 one rebelpriest had called for the remova l of all bishops andarchbishops, as well as all the nobles,

The greed of the C hurch was one obv ious reasonfor its unpopularity. T he C hurch was a feuda lpower, and ofte n trea ted its peasants andtownspeople with as much cruelty as the nobles did.There was anothe r reason why the people ofEngland disliked paying taxes to the pope. Edward'swars in France were beginn ing to make the Englishconscious of the ir "Eng lishness" and the pope was aforeigner . To make matters worse the pope hadbeen driven out of Rome, and was living inAvignon in France . It seemed obv ious to theEnglish that the pope must be on the French side ,and that the taxes they paid to the Church wereactually helping France against England. This was amatter on which the king and people in Englandagreed. Th e king reduced the amount of tax money

7 The century of war, plague and disorder

the pope could raise in Britain , and made sure thatmost of it found its way into h is own treasuryinstead.

One might have expected the bishops and clergy to

oppose the king. They did not , because almost allof them were English and came from noble families,and so shared the polit ical views of the nobility.Most of them had been appo inted by the king andsome of them also acted as h is officers. When thepeasants stormed London in 1381 they executed theArch bishop of Canterbury, who was also the king'schance llor. It was unlikely that his killers saw muchdifference between the two offices. Archb ishop orchance llor, he was part of an oppressiveestab lishment .

Another threat to the Ch urch during thefourteenth century was the spread of religiouswritings, which were popu lar with an increasinglyliterate popu lat ion . T hese books were for use inprivate prayer and dealt with the death of JesusChrist , the lives of the Saints and the Virgin Mary.T he increase in private prayer was a direct threat tothe authority of the Ch urch over the religious lifeof the populat ion . T h is was because these writ ingsallowed people to pray and thi nk independently ofChurch control. Private religious experience andthe increase of knowledge encouraged peop le tocha llenge the C hurch 's authority, and the way itused th is to adva nce its poli t ical infl uence.

Most peop le were happy to accept the conti nuedauthority of the Ch urch , but some were no t. At theend of the fourteenth century new religious ideasappeared in England which were dangerous toChurch authority, and were condemned as heresy.T h is heresy was known as "Lo llardv", a word whichprobably came from a Latin word meaning "to sayprayers". One of th e leaders of Lollardv was JohnWycl iffe, an Oxford professor . He believed thateveryo ne sho uld be able to read the Bible in Eng­lish , and to be guided by it in order to save theirsoul. He the refore translated it from Latin, fi n ishingthe work in 1396. He was not allowed to publishhis new Bible in England, and was forced to leaveOx ford. However , both he and the ot her Lollardswere admired by those nobles and scho lars who

49

An Illustrated History of Britain

The Peasants' Rewl! ended when {he LordMayor of London killed W,t{ Tyler (l{ Smi{hfield. Perhaps he feared{hdf Tylerwould kill KingRichard, to whom Tyler was calking. Richard 11 can be seen a secondtime, ta/kingre {he peesenr army (rigIH) andcalming lhelll with the words, "Sirs, will youshlKll your king! 1am yourletUL..'T, follow me." In iaa he seru lhem ro their h()1T\es, andsenl his officers re arrest andexecute {he le,uU.'TS.

were crirical of th e C hurch , its wealth and the poorqualit y of its clergy.

If the Lollards had been supported by the king. theEnglish Church might have become independentfrom the papacy in the early fifteenth cent ury. ButRichard's successo r, Henry IV , was notsympathe t ic. He was deep ly loyal to th e C hurch .and in 140 1 int roduced into England for the firsttime the idea of execu ting the Lollards by burning.Lollardv was not well enough organ ised to resist. Inthe next few years it was driven underground , andits spirit was not seen again for a century.

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8 The crisis of kings and noblesT he crisis of kingship' Wa les in revolt · The struggle in France' TheWars of the Roses' Scotland

Richard 11. This is probably rhe earlim POTCTai! of a sovereignpaintedfrom~fe ID have survitlt'd to this day. This is a cupy of lhe original in Wesrminslt'TAb"",.

The crisis of kingshipDurin g the fourteenth century, towards the end ofthe Middl e Ages, there was a continuous strugglebetween the king and his nob les, T he first crisiscame in 1327 when Edward II was deposed andcruelly murde red. His eleven-year-old son , EdwardIll , became king, and as soon as he could, hepun ished those responsible. But the princ iple thatkings were ne ither to be killed nor depo sed wasbroken.

Towards the en d of the fourteenth century RichardII was the second king to be killed by ambitiouslords. He had made himself ext remely unp opu lar byhis choice of adv isers. Th is was always a diffi cul tmat ter , because the king's adv isers becamepowerful, and those not chosen lost influence andwealth. Some of Richard 's strongest critics hadbeen the most powerful men in the kingdom.

Richard was young and proud. He quarre lled withthe se noble s in 1388, and used his author ity to

humble them. He imprisoned his uncle, John ofGaunt, the third son of Edward Ill, who was themost powerful and wealthy noble of his time . Johnof Ga unt died in prison. O ther nob les, includingJohn of Ga unt's son, Henry duke of Lancaster, didnot forget or forgive . In 1399, when Richard II wasbusy trying to estab lish royal author ity again inIreland , they rebe lled. Henry of Lancaster, who hadleft England , returned and raised an army. Richardwas deposed.

Un like Edward I1 , however, Rich ard II had noch ildren. There were two possible successors. O newas the earl of March, the seven-year-old grandsonof Edward Ill 's second son. The other was Henry ofLancaster, son of John of Ga unt . It was diffic ult to

51

A n Illustrated H istory.of Britain

say which had the better claim to the throne. ButHenry was stronger. He won the support of otherpowerful nobles and took th e crown by force.Richard died mvsreriouslv soon after.

Henr y IV spent the test of his reign establish ing hisroyal author ity. But alth ough he passed th e crownto his son peacefully, he had sown the seeds of civilwar. Half a century later th e nob ility would bedivided between those who suppor ted h is family,the "Lancastr ians" , and those who supported thefamily of th e earl of March , the "Yorkists".

Wales in revoltEdward I had conquered Wales in the I 280s, andcolon ised it. He brought English peop le to en largesmall town s. Pembrokesh ire, in th e far southwest ,even became known as "t he little England beyondWales". Edward 's officers drove many of the Wel shint o the h ills, and gave the ir land to Englishfarmers. Man y W elsh were forced to join theEnglish army, not because the y wanted to serve theEnglish but because th ey had lost their land andneeded to live. T hey fought in Sco tla nd and inFrance , and taught the English their skill with thelon gbow.

A century lat er th e W elsh found a man who wasready to rebel against the English kin g, and whomthey were willing to follow. O wain G lvndwr wasthe fi rst and on ly Wel sh pr ince to have wide andpopular support in every part of W ales. In fact itwas he who created the idea of a Wel sh nat ion . Hewas descended from two royal families which hadruled in different parts of Wales before th eNormans came.

O wain G lvndwr's rebellion did not start as anati onal revol t . A t first he joined the revol t ofNorman-Welsh border lords who had always triedto be free of royal cont rol. But afte r ten years of warO wain G lyndwr's border rebell ion had developedinto a nation al war, and in 1400 he was procla imedPrince of Wales by his suppor ters. T his was farmore popular with the Welsh peop le than EdwardI's trick with his newborn son at Cae rnarfon in1284 . However, Glyndwr was not strong enough to

52

defea t th e English arm ies sent against h im. Hecontinued to fight a successful guerrilla war wh ichmade the control of Wales an extre mely expensiveprob lem for the English . But after 1410 G lyndwrlost almost all his support as Welsh people realisedthat however hard they fough t they would never befree of the English . Owa in G lyndwr was nevercapture d. He did for W ales what W illiam Wa llacehad don e for Sco tland a century earlier. He createda feeling of nat ion al identity.

Cilgerran Castle, near Cardigan in southwest Wales, wa.~ capturedbyOwain GlynJwr in /405. Although it had been built two hundred yearsearlier. it was clearly strong and must NlVe been difficull to csprure.

The struggle in FranceBy the end of the fourteenth century, the long warwith France, known as the Hundred Years War,had already been going on for over fifty years. Butthere had heen long periods withou t actua l fighting.

When Henry IV died in 1413 he passed on to hisson Henry V a kingdom that was peaceful andunit ed. Henry V was a brave and intelligent man ,and like Rich ard I, he became one of England 'sfavourite kings.

Since the situat ion was peacefu l at home Henry Vfelt able to begin fighting the French again. HisFrench war was as popu lar as Edward Ill 's had been.Henry had a great advantage because the king ofFrance was mad, and his nohle s were quarrelsome.The war began again in 1415 when Henry renewedEdward Ill's cla im to the throne of France .Burgundy again suppo rted England, and the Englisharmy was able to prove once more that it was farbette r in bat tle th an the Fren ch army. AtAginco urt the same year th e English defeated aFrench army three times its own size. T he Englishwere more skilful, and had better weapo ns.

Between 1417 and 1420 Henry man aged to capturemost of Nor mandy and the ne arby areas. By thetreaty of Troyes in 1420 Henry was recognised asheir to the mad king, and he married Katherine ofValois, the king's daughter. Bur Henry V neverbecame king of France because he died a fewmonths before the French king in 1422. His nin e­month-old babv son , Henry VI, inherited thethrones of England and France.

As with Sco tland and Wa les, England found it waseasier to invade and co nquer France than to keepit. At first Henry V's brother , John duke ofBedford, contin ued to en large the area underEnglish control. But soon the Frenc h began to fig htback. Foreign invasion had created for the fi rst timestrong French national feeling. The English armywas twice defeated by the French, who wereinspired by a mysterious peasant girl ca lled [oan ofArc, who claimed to hear heavenl y voices. [oan ofArc-was captured by the Burgundians, and given to

8 The crisis of kings and noble,

HenryV is remembered as possibly themost heroic of English kings becauseof his brillianf campaigns in France. Hisdeath in 1422 brought to an end theEnglish kings' hopes of rulingFrance.

the English . T he English gave her to the Ch urch inRouen which burnt her as a witch in 1431.

England was now beginning to lose an extremelycostly war. In 1435 England 's best general, John ofBedford, died. Then England's Breron andBurgundi an allies lost confidence in the value of th eEnglish alliance . With the loss of Gascon y in 1453,the Hundred Years War was over. England had losteve ryth ing exce pt rhe port of Calais.

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An Illustrated Histo ry of Britain

T he hatde of Agincourl in J415 was Henry V's most famous viclIJry againstthe French. T he E7IMli.~h ann)' with the royal standard a1tacks (left ), TheFrench royal standard is to be seen on theground (bo ttom right) as FrenchsoldJm die. A lihough the English uere oumumberedby more than three to

one. Henry's archers destroyed the Frenchfeudal cavalry.

54

The Wars of the RosesHenry VI, who had become kin g as a baby , grew upto be simple-minded and book -loving. He hared th ewarlike nobl es, and was an unsuit ab le king forsuch a violent socie ty. But he was a civilised andgenrle man . He founded two places of learning thatstill ex ist, Eton C ollege not far from London , an dKing's C ollege in Cambridge. He could happil yhave spent h is life in such places of learning. ButHenry' s slmple- mindedness gave way to peri ods ofmental illn ess.

England had lost a war and was ruled by a mentallyill king who was bad at choosing advisers. It wasperha ps natural that the nobles began to askquestions abo ut who sho uld be ruling the co untry.They remembered th at Henry's grandfather Henryof Lancaster had taken th e throne when Richard 11was deposed .

There were not more th an sixty noble familiescontrolling England at this ti me . Most of the mwere related to eac h other through marri age. Some

of the nobles were extremely powerful. Many ofthem contin ued to keep their own private armiesafter ret urning from the war in France, and usedthem to frigh ten local people into obeying th em.Some of these armies were large. For example, by1450 th e duk e of Buckingham had 2,000 men inhis private army.

The discontented nobility were divided betw eenthose who rem ained loya l to Henry VI, the"Lancastrians", and th ose who supported th e duk eof York, th e "Yorkisrs". The duke of York was theheir of the earl of March, who had lost thecompet it ion for the th rone when Richard 11 wasdeposed in 1399 . In 1460 the duk e of York cla imedthe throne for h imself. After his death in battle, hisson Edward took up th e struggle and won thethrone in 1461.

Edward IV put Henry into the T ower of London ,but nine years lat er a new Lancastrian army rescuedHenry and chas ed Edward out of th e co untry. Likethe Lan castrians , Edward was able to raise ano the rarmy. Edward had the advantage of his popularitywith the merch ants of London and the southeast of

8 The crisis of kin gs and nobl cs

England . This was because the York ists had stro nglyencouraged profitable trade, parti cul arly withBurgun dy. Edward returned to Englan d in 1471 anddefeated th e Lan castri ans . At last Edward IV wassafe on the throne. Henry VI died in the T ower ofLondon soon after, almost certain ly murdered .

The war between York and Lan caster wouldprobably have sto pped then if Edward 's son hadbeen old enough to rule , and if Edward 's brothe r,Richard of G loucester, had not been so ambitious.But when Edward IV died in 1483, his own twosons , the twel ve-year -old Edward V and his younge rbrother, were put in the T ower by Richard ofG louces ter. Rich ard too k th e Crown and becameKing Rich ard Ill. A month lat er the two princeswere murd ered. William Shakespeare's play RichardIll, written a century later, acc uses Richard ofmurder and almos t everyo ne believed it. Richard IIIhad a better reaso n than most to wish his twonephews dead, but his guilt ha s never been proved .

Richa rd III was not popular. Lan castrians andYorkists both disliked him. In 1485 a cha llenge rwith a very distant claim to royal blood throughJoh n of Gaunt landed in England with Breronso ld iers to claim the throne. Man y discontentedlords, both Lan castri ans and Yorkists, joined him.H is name was Henry Tudor, duk e of Richmond,and he was half W elsh . He met Rich ard III atBosworth . Half of Richard's army cha nged sides,and th e battle qui ckly ended in his defeat anddeath . Henry Tudor was crowne d kingimmed iately, on the battlefield.

T he war had finally ended, th ough th is co uld nothave been clea r at the t ime . Much later, in thenine teenth century, the novelist Wa iter Scorrnamed these wars the "Wars of the Roses" , beca useYork 's symbol was a wh ite rose, and Lancaster's ared one.

T he Wars of the Roses ne arl y destroyed th e Englishidea of kingship for ever. After 1460 th ere had beenlittle respect for any thing except the power to takethe Crown. Tudor histori an s made much of thesewars and made it seem as if much of England hadbeen destroyed . This was not true . Fighting tookplace for on ly a to ta l of fifteen months out of th e

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An Illustrated History of Britain

whole twenty-five year period . O n ly the nobles andtheir armies were involved .

It is true, however , that the wars were a disaster forthe nobility. For the fi rst time there had been nopurpose in taking prisoners, because no one wasinterested in payment of ransom. Everyone wasinterested in destroying the opposing nob ility.T hose captured in bat tle were usually killedimmediately. By the rime of the bat tle of Bosworthin 1485, the old nobi lity had nea tly destroyed itself.Almost half the lords of the sixty noble families haddied in the wars. It was thi s fact which made itpossible for the Tudors to build a new nat ion state .

ScotlandSco tland experienced man y of the disasters thataffected England at th is time. The Scots did notescape the Black Death or the ot he r plagues, andthey also suffered from repeated wars.

Scotland paid heavily for its "Auld Alliance" withFrance. Because it supported France during theHundred Years War, the English repeated ly invadedthe Sco rt ish Lowlands, from which most of theScots king's wealth came. England renew ed itsclaim ro overlordsh ip of Sco tland, and Edward IV'sarmy occupied Edinburgh in 1482.

Like the English kings, rhe Sco tt ish kings wereinvolved in long struggles with their nobles.Support for France turned attention away fromestablishing a strong state at home. And , as inEngland, several kin gs died early. [arnes I wasmurdered in 1437, [a rnes 11 died in an accidentbefore he was th irty in 1460, and [ ames III wasmurdered in 1488. T he early death of so man yScot s kings left government in the hand s ofpowerful nobles un ti l the dead king's son was oldenough to rule . Naturally these nobles took thechance to make their own position more powerful.

As in England , th e nobles kept private armies,instead of using serfs for military service as they haddone earlier. This new system fitted well with th eC eltic tribal loyalti es of the High lands. The Gaelicword for such tribes. "clan". means "children", inother words members of one family. But from the

56

fourteenth cen tury, a "clan " began to mean groupsof people occupying an area of land and following aparti cular ch ief. Not all the members of a clan wererelated to each other. Some groups joined a clan forprote ction , or because they were forced to choosebetween doing so or leaving the area. The mostpowerful of the Highland clan s by th e fifteent hcentu ry was C lan Dona ld. T he clan chiefs werealmost complete ly independen t.

By the end of the Midd le Ages, however, Sco tlandhad devel oped as a nation in a number of ways.From 1399 the Scots dem and ed that a parli amentshould meet once a year, and kings often gathe redtogether leading citi zens to discuss matters ofgovernment. As in England , towns grew inimportance, mainl y because of th e wool tradewhich grew thanks to the help of Flemish settle rs.T here was a large export trade in wool, leather andfish, mostly to the Netherlands.

Scotl and's alliance with France brought somebenefits. At a time when much of the farmland wasrepeatedly destroyed by English armies, manyScotsmen found work as sold iers for the Frenchking. Far more importantly. the connection withFrance he lped develop education in Sco tland.Following the example of Paris, universit ies werefounded in Sco tland at St Andrews in 1412,G lasgow in 1451 and at Abe rdeen in 1495.Sco tland could rightly claim ro be equal withEngland in learning. By the end of the fifteenthce ntury it was obv ious that Scotland was a separatecoun try from England . No body, either in Englandor in Sco tland, believed in th e English king 's claimto be overlord of Scotl and .

9 Government and societyGovernment and society ' The condition of women ' Language andculture

Government and societyThe year 1485 has usually been taken to mark theend of th e Middle Ages in England. Of course,nobody at the t ime would have seen it as such.There was no reason to think that the new KingHenry VII would rule ove r a coun try any differentfrom the one ruled over by Rich ard Ill. Beforelooking at the changes in England under the Houseof Tudor it migh t be worth looking back at some ofthe main social deve lopments that had taken placein the late Midd le Ages.

Society was st ill based upon ran k. At the top weredukes, earls and other lords, although there were farfewer as a result of war. Below these great lordswere knights. Most knights, even by Edward I'stime , were no longer heavily armed fighters onhorses. They were "gen tlemen farmers" or "land edgentry" who had increased the size of theirlandholdings, and improved their farming methods.T his class had grown in numbers. Edward I hadordered that all those with an income of £20 a yearmust be made knights. This meant tha t even some

Sir Geuf/rey LzmrelJ with his family and retainers tU dinner. Food was enren WilhoUl forks, at a simpletable. However, young men in particular had to remember their manners. "Don'( sit down until youare told to and keep your hands andfeeestill." they were wld. "C ut your bread with your knife enddonor tear it Don', lean on the tllbleand make a mess on the cloth or drink with a full mouth. Don',take 50 much in your mourh lhat you cannot arnwer when someone speaks to you. " Seoercl peopleshared thesame cup, soa firu;tl piece of ad",'ice UJ(lj "wipe your mouthand hands clean u:itha cloth. soUuu you do not diTty the cup and make your friends unwilling to drink with you."

v I

nanm Olmlnl tnuomll1l

•57

An Illustrated H isror v of Britain

Great Cludfield manor, rebuilt in 1480, is a fine example of a Inte MiddleAges manor house. It was owned by a Iocallnndowner and wwyer who, likemany of thegentry class, profi fed greatly from thedestruction of the nobilityin the Wars of the Roses. The frulll of the house is almos t exactlyus it was in1480, bw lhebuilding on theright is much later. The grem haU isimmediately inside the maincnnuncc. a I)'pieal arrangement fm' Ihis period.

of the yeoman farme rs became part of the "landedgentry", while many "esquires", who had servedkn ights in earlier times, now became knigh tsthemselves. The word "esquire" became common inwritten addresses, and is only now slowly beginningto be used less.

Next to the gentlemen were the ordinary freemenof the towns. By the end of th e Middle Ages, it waspossible for a serf from th e co unt ryside to work forseven years in a town craft guild, and to become a"freeman" of th e town where he lived. The freemencon trolled the life of a town . Towns offered to poormen the chance to become rich and successfulthro ugh trade. T he most famous examp le of thi swas Dick Wh itt ington . T he story tells how hearrived in London as a poor boy from the

58

countryside, and became a successful merchant andLord Mayor of London three times. Wh ittingtonwas, actually, th e son of a knigh t. He was probablyan exa mple of the growing pract ice of the land edfamilies of sending younger sons to town to join amerchant or craft guild. A t the same time, manysuccessful merchant families were doing theopposite th ing, and obtain ing farmland in thecountryside. T hese two classes, th e land ed gentryand the town merchants, were beginning tooverlap.

In the beginning th e guilds had been formed toprotect th e production or trade of a who le town.Lat er, th ey had come to protec t those alreadyenjoying membership, or who could afford to buyit, from the poorer classes in the same town . As

9 Government and society

A leading cirizen of Bristol ismade ma"l'f,IT, 1479. Theap[>(J in rm~nt of rhe mayor andalderman of a cicy was usuallyconerolled by senior members of acity's merchanr andcraft guilds.

they did not have the money or family connectionsto become memb ers of the guilds, the poorer skilledworkers tried to join toget he r to protect their owninterests. Th ese were the first efforts to form a tradeunion. Severa l times in the fourtee nth centuryskilled workers tri ed unsuccessfully to protectthemselves against the power of the guilds. Thelives of skilled workers were hard , but they did notsuffer as much as the unskilled, who lived in poorand dirty conditions. However, eve n the conditionof the poorest workers in both town and coun trywas better than it had been a cent ury earlier.

In fact, the guilds were declining in importancebecause of a new force in the national eco no my.Durin g the fourteenth century a num ber of Englishmerchants established trading stations , "factories",in different places in Europe. The merchantorganisations necessary to operate these factoriesbecame important at a national level , and began toreplace th e old town guilds as the most powerfultrading institutions, However, they copied the aimsand met hods of the guilds, making sure Englishmerchants cou ld on ly expo rt thro ugh theirfactor ies, and making sure that prices and qua litywere maintained.

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An Illustrated History of Britain

All women, from lhe highest, asin this picture. to the lowest inthe land were expected to knowhow to prepare. spinand weal't'u.'OO1. From Ssxon times 0Jl~English women were famous ferrtheir embroidery skills. Womenwere expected to spend theiT rimtin embroidery or in makinggarmenLS right up to the end ofthe nineteenth century.

O ne of the most important of these factor ies wasthe "Comp any of the Staple" in Ca lais. T he"staple" was an international term used bymerch ants and governments meaning that ce rtaingoods could on ly be sold in part icular places. C alaisbecame the "stap le" for all English wool at the endof the fourteent h century when it defeated rivalEnglish facto ries in other foreign citi es. The stap lewas an arrangemen t wh ich suited the establishedmerchants. as it prevented competition. and it alsosuited the Crown. whic h cou ld tax exports moreeasily. T he ot her important company was called the"Merch ant Ad vent urers". During the fourtee nthcent ury there had been seve ral Merch ant

60

Adventurers' factor ies in a number of foreigntowns. But all of th em . except for the MerchantAd venturers in Antwerp , Flanders. closed duringthe fifteent h century. T he Antw erp Merch an tAdv enturers' factory survived because of its solecontrol of cloth exports. a fact recognised by royalcharte r.

Wages for farmworkers and for skilled townspeoplerose faste r tha n the price of goods in the fifteenthcent ury. There was plenty of meat and cereal priceswere low. But the re were warn ing signs of problemsahead. More and more good land was being used forsheep instead of food crops . Rich and powerfulsheep farmers started to fen ce in land wh ich had

always been used by othe r villagers. In th esixteenth century this led to social and econo miccrisis.

Meanwhi le , in the town s, a new middle class wasdevelop ing. By the fifteenth century mostmerchants were well educa ted , and consideredthemselves to be the equals of the esquires andgentlemen of the countryside. The lawyers wereanothe r class of city people. In London th ey wereconside red equal in importan ce to the bigmerchants and clo rh manufacturers. W hen lawschoo ls were first established, studen t lawyers livedin inns on the weste rn side of the C ity of Londonwhile they studied. Slowly these inns became partof the law schools, just as the stude ntaccommodation halls of Oxford and Cambridgeevent ually became the co lleges of these twouniversities.

By the end of the Midd le Ages the more successfulof these lawyers, merchants, cloth manufact urers,exporters, esquires, gentlemen and yeoman farmerswere increasingly forming a single class of peop lewith interests in both town and co unt ry. This wasalso true in Wales and Sco tland. A number ofWelsh lan downers came to England ; some studiedat Ox ford, and some traded , or pract ised law inLondon . Fewer Scots came to England , becausethey had th eir own universit ies, and their owntrade centres of Edinburgh, G lasgow and Aberdeen.

The growth of this new middle class, educated andskilled in law, admin istra t ion and t rade, created anew at mosphere in Britain . T his was partly becauseof the increase in literacy. Indeed, the midd le classcould be descri bed as th e "literate class". Thislitera te class quest ioned the way in wh ich th eChurch and the state were organ ised , for bothreligious and pract ica l reasons. O n the religious sidesupport for Wycliffe came mainl y from members ofthis new middle class, who believed it was the irright to read th e Bible in th e English language.Th ey disliked serfdom partl y because it was nowincreas ingly viewed as unchristian ; but also for thepract ical reason that it was nor eco no mic. Themiddle class also quest ion ed the va lue of th e feuda lsystem because it did not create wealth.

9 Govcm mcnr and sccierv

The development of Parli amen t at th is time showedth e beginnings of a new relat ionsh ip between themiddle class and th e kin g. Edward I had inv itedkni ght s from th e count ry and merchants from thetowns to h is parliament because he wanted moneyand they , more than any othe r group, could prov ideit. But whe n Edward III asked for mon ey from hisparl iament, they asked to see the royal accounts. Itwas an important developmen t because for the firsttime th e king allowed himself to be "acco untable"to Parli ament. Merch ants an d country gentlemenwere very anx ious to influence the king's policie sboth at home and abroad. They wanted to protectthe ir interests. W hen France threatened the woo ltrade with Flan ders, for examp le, they supportedEdward III in his war.

During th e time of Edward Ill's reign Parliamentbecame organised in two part s: the Lords, and theCommons, wh ich represented the middle class.O n ly those co mmone rs with an income of fort ysh illings or more a year co uld qualify to be membersof Parliament. T his meant th at th e poor had noway of being heard except by rebe llion. The poorhad no voice of the ir own in Parli ament until th emiddle of the nineteenth century.

T he alliance between esquires and merchants madeParl iament more powerful, and separated theCommons more and more from the Lords. ManyEuropean cou ntries had th e same kind ofparliaments at this time, but in most cases thesedisappeared when feuda lism died out. In England ,however, th e deat h of feuda lism helped strengthenth e House of Commons in Parl iament.

There was ano the r importa nt change tha t hadtaken place in the coun try. Kings had been takinglaw cases away from local lords' co urts since th etwelfth century, and by the middle of thefourteenth century the courts of local lord s nolon ger ex isted. But the king's courts co uld not dealwith all th e work. In 1363 Edward III appo inted"justices of th e peac e" to deal with sma ller crimesand offences , and to hold co urt four times a year.

These JPs, as they became known, were usually lessimpo rtant lord s or members of the landed gentry.They were, and st ill are, chose n for their fairness

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An Illustrated History of Britain

and hon esty. The appo int ment of landed gentry asJPs made the middle classes, that class of peoplewho were neither nob les nor peasants, st illstronger. Through th e system of JPs th e landedgentry took the place of the nobility as the localaurhorirv. During the Wars of the Roses the noblesused their private armie s to force JPs and judges todo what they wanted. But th is was the last time thenobility in Britai n tried to destroy the authority ofthe king. The JPs remained the on ly form of localgovernment in the countrys ide until 1888. T heystill exist to deal with small offences.

The condition of womenLittl e is know n about the life of women in theMiddle Ages, but witho ut do ubt it was hard . TheChurch taught that women should obey theirhusbands. It also spread two very different ideasabo ut women: that they should be pure and holylike the Virgin Mary; and that, like Eve , they couldnot be trusted and were a moral danger to men.Such religious teach ing led men both to worsh ip-and also to look down on wome n, and led womento give in to men's authority.

Marriage was usually the single most importantevent in the lives of men and women. But thedec ision itself was made by the family, not thecoup le th emselves. Th is was because by marriage afamily cou ld improve its wealth and socia l position.Everyone, both rich and poor , married for mainlyfinancial reasons. Once married , a woman had toaccept her husband as her master. A disobedientwife was usually beaten . It is unlikely that loveplayed much of a part in most marr iages.

T he fi rst duty of every wife was to give her husbandch ildren, preferab ly sons. Because so man y childrendied as babies, and because there was littl e thatcould be done if a birth went wrong, producingch ildren was dangerous and exhausting. Yet thiswas the future for eve ry wife from twenty oryounger un til she was forty.

The wife of a noble had ot her respon sibili ties.W hen her lord was away, she was in cha rge of th emanor and the village lands, all the servants and

62

Women defending their casrle. Throughoul theMiddle Ages, ifa castle ormanor Uill au-xked u:hile its lord \Lw awa)' . it Uill the dutyof 1W u>ife. !he"chatelalne" (or "casrlekeeper"). to defend it. A /ad)' had to knowetleT)'rhing aboul administering her lord's manor andlands, forshe \LW

resporuible \L'hen hewas away, One lady \L'M did norcompletely rrust halord's abiliry to manage while she was awa)'. wrote to him, "Keep allweUabout you till I come home. andtreat nut [do norenter intobusinessalTangements} withourme. and rhen all rhi1lRs shall bewell. "

villagers, th e harvest and the an imals. She also hadto defend the manor if it was attacked. She had to

run the household, welcome visitors. and storeenough food, including salted meat, for win ter. Shewas expected to have enough knowledge of herbsand plants to make suitab le medicin es for those inthe village who were sick. She proba bly visited thepoor and the sick in the village, showing th at the

9 G cvc m menr and soc iety

BayLeafFarm. a fifteen f.h-century Kentfarmhouse. a limber-framebuildingwith waIls made of "wat lle anddaub". basically sticksandmud. This wasavery ef!eClil,,'f! rypeof building, but requiTed skilled carpenters to !1'U1ke asrrong frame. One man who did nor like this J1t'W method called f.hese houseslink more than "paper wark". But examples are sliUlived in as ordinaryhomes in manyparrs of England.

rulers "cared" for them. Sh e had littl e t ime for herown ch ildren , who in any case were often sent awayat the age of eight to another manor, the boys to"be made into men".

Most women, of course, were peasants, busymaking food, making cloth and making clothesfrom the c1orh . They worked in the fi elds, lookedafter the children, the geese, the pigs and thesheep, made the cheese and grew the vegetab les.The an imals probably shared th e family shelter atnight. The family home was dark and smelly.

A woman's posit ion improved if her husband died.She could get control of th e money her family hadgiven the husban d at the t ime of marriage, usuallyabout one -th ird of his total land and wealth . Butshe might have to marry again : men wanted herland , and it was difficult to look afte r it without thehelp of a man.

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An Illustrated History of Britain

Language and cultureWith the spread of literacy, cultural life in Britainnaturally developed also. In the cities, plays wereperformed at important religious festivals. Theywere called "mystery plays" because of themysterious nature of events in the Bible, and theywere a popular form of culture. In the larger citiessome guilds made the mselves respon sible forparticul ar plays, which became tradit ion al yearlyevents.

T he language itself was cha nging. Fren ch had beenused less and less by the Norman rulers during theth irteenth century. In the fourteent h centuryEdward III had actually forbidden the speaking ofFrench in his army. It was a way of making thewhole army aware of its Englishness.

After the Norman Conquest English (t he oldAn glo-Saxon language ) continued to be spoken byordinary peop le but was no longer writt en . By theen d of the fourteen th cen tury, however, Englishwas once again a written language , because it wasbein g used instead of French by the rulin g, literateclass. But "M iddle English", the language of thefourteenth and fifteenth centuries, was verydifferent from Anglo-Saxon, T his was partlybecause it had not been written for three hundredyears, and partly because it had borrowed so muchfrom Norman French .

Two writers, above all ot hers, hel ped in the rebirthof English literature. O ne was William Langland, amid-four teen th ce ntury priest , whose poem PiersPlowman gives a powerful descr ipt ion of the timesin which he lived. The othe r, Ge offrey Cha ucer,has become much more famous. He lived at aboutthe same time as Langland. His most famous workwas Th e Canterbur~ T ales, writte n at the end of thefourteenth ce ntu ry.

Th e Canterbury T ales describe a group of pilgrimstravelling from Lond on to the tomb of T homasBecker at Canterbury, a common religious act inEngland in the Middle Ages. During the journeyeach characte r te lls a story. Collections of stor ieswere popular at this t ime because almost allliterature, unlike today. was written to be read out

64

aloud. The stor ies themselves are not C ha ncer'sown. He used old stories, but rewrote th em in aninteresting and amusing way. The first chapter, inwhich he describes his cha racters, is the result ofC hancer's own deep understanding of hum annature. It remains aston ish ingly fresh even afte r sixhundred years. It is a un ique descrip tion of anation: young and old, knight and peasant , priestand merchant , good and bad, town sman andcountryman. Here is part of Cha ncer's descript ion(in a modern ised version ) of the knigh t, and hisson , the squire:

T here was a knight, a most distinguished man,W ho from the day on which he fi rst beganTo ride abroad had followed ch ivalry,Truth . honour, genero usness and co urtesy . ..He had his son with him, a fine young squire,A lover and cade t , a lad of fi reW ith locks as curly as if they had been pressed.He was some twen ty years of age, I guessedHe was embro idered like a meadow brightAnd full of freshest flowers, red and whi te.Singing he was, or fl ut ing all the day;He was as fresh as is the month of May.Short was his gown, the sleeves were long and

wide;He knew the way to sit a horse and ride.He could make songs and poem s and reci te ,Knew how to joust and dance , to draw and write.He loved so hotl y that ti ll dawn grew paleHe slept as little as a nigh tingale.

By the end of the Middle Ages, English as well asLatin was being used in legal writing, and also inelementary schools. Educat ion developedenormously dur ing the fi fteenth century, and manyschools were founded by powerful men. O ne ofthese was W illiam of Wy keham, Bishop ofWinchester and Lord Cha ncellor of England , whofounded bot h W inchester Schoo l, in 1382 , andNew College, Oxford. Like Hen ry VI's lat erfoundarions at Eton and Ca mbridge they haveremained famous for the ir high qua lity. Man y ot herschools were also opened at th is time, because th erewas a growin g need for educated people who couldadminister the gove rnment, the C hurch , the lawand trade. C lerks sta rted grammar schools whe restudents could learn the skills of reading andwriting. These schools offered the ir pupil s a futurein the Church or the civ il serv ice, or at theuniversities of Oxford and Ca mbridge . T heuniversit ies themselves continued to grow ascolleges and halls where the students cou ld bothlive and be taugh t were built. The college systemremains the basis of organisation in these twouniversities.

The Middle Ages ended with a major techn icaldevelopment: Wi lliam C axron's first Englishprint ing press, set up in 1476. Caxton had learntthe skill of printing in G ermany, At first he printedpopular books, such as C haucer's Canterbury Talesand Malory's Morte J'Arthur. This prose workdescribed th e adventures of the legendary KingArthur, including Arthur's last bat tle , his death ,and the death of othe r kn ights of the Round Tab le.Almost certa in ly Malory had in mind thedestruction of th e English nobility in the Wars ofthe Roses, which were taking place as he wrot e,

Caxron's printing press was as dram at ic for h is ageas radio, television and the techn ologicalrevolution ate for our own. Books suddenly becamecheaper and more plentiful, as the quic ker printingprocess replaced slow and expensive copywriting byhand. Printing began ro standardise spelling andgrammar, though this process was a long one . Moreimporta nt, just as radio brough t information andideas to the illiterate peop le of the twentiethcentury, Caxron 's press prov ided books for the

9 Govcrn rncnr and society

newly educated people of the fifteent h century, andencouraged literacy. Caxron avo ided print ing anydangerou s literature. But the children andgrandch ildren of these literate peop le were to useprinting as a powerful weapon ro cha nge the worldin which they lived.

Thechapel of King's College, Cambridge, with its fan-vaulted roofand largeareas of glass anddelicate stone work, marks the highest point of Gochicarchitecture in ETlRland. The t 'ttu/[ wa.s completed tU che beginninR" of chesixteenthcentury. andthe uooden crrgan screen ccross the centre of the chapelisof Tl«ltrr design.

65

66

The Tudors10 The birth of the nation state

The new monarchy' The Reformation' The Protestant-Catholicstruggle

The century of Tudor rule (1485-1603) is oftenthought of as a most glorious period in Englishhistory. Henry Vll built the foundations of awealth y nation state and a powerful mon archy. Hisson , Henry Vlil, kept a magn ificent court , andmade the C hurch in England tru ly English bybreakin g away from the Roman C atho lic Ch urch.Finally, his daughter Elizabeth brought glory to thenew state by defeating the powerful navy of Spain ,the greatest European power of the tim e. Durin gthe Tudor age England experienced one of th egreatest art ist ic periods in its h istory.

There is, however, a less glor ious view of the Tudorcentury. Henry Vlil wasted the wealth saved by hisfather. Elizabeth weakened the qua lity ofgovernment by selling official posts. She did thi s toavoid asking Parliamen t for money. And althoughher gove rnment tried to deal with the prob lem ofpoor and home less peop le at a time when pricesrose much faster than wages, its laws and acti onswere often cruel in effect.

The new monarchyHenry Vll is less well known than either HenryVlil or Elizabeth I. But he was far more importantin estab lishing the new monarchy than either of

Left: The defeat of [he Spanish Arnuu1a in /588 Wl15 the mOSIglorious even tofElizabeth 1'5 reign. It marked the arrivalof England asa greatEuropean sea power, leading[he way to the development of theempireover!he next two centuries. Ir also markedthelimit of Spain's ability to recaptureProtestant countriesfor the Catholic Church.

Right: Henry Vll was clever with people and careful with money. He holdsa red Lancastrian rose in his hand, burhe broughtunit)· to the Houses ofYorkandLancaster. His successors symbolised this unity by use of a red roseI.Jo'ilh white outet petaL>. the "T udor" rose.

them. He had the same ideas and opin ions as thegrowing classes of merchants and gentlemanfarmers, and he based royal power on good businesssense.

Henry VII firmly believed that war and glory werebad for business, and that business was good for thestate. He th erefore avoided quarrels either withScotland in the north, or France in the south .

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An Illustrated History of Britain

During the fifteen th cen tury, bu t parti cu larly duringth e W ars of the Roses, Eng l-and's trad ing positionhad bee n badly damaged. T he stro ng Germa nHanseati c League, a closed trad ing soc iety, haddestroyed English tra de with the Balt ic andnorthern Europe. T rade with Italy and France hadalso been red uced after England's defeat in Francein the mid-fifteenth century. T he Low Countries(t he Nethe rlands and Belgium) alone offered a wayin for trade in Europe. O n ly a year after his victoryat Boswort h in 1485, Henry VU made an impor tan ttrade agree ment with the Nethe rlands wh ichallowed English trade to grow again .

Henry was fortunate . Many of th e o ld nobility haddied or bee n defeated in the recen t wars, and the ir

Henry VlIl, by the greatcourt painter Ham Holbein. Henry was hard,cruel, ambitious and calculating. Fewsurvived hisanger. Heexecuted [WO ofhis waes. Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard, and several of his ministersand leading churchmen. Bestknownamong these were his Lord Chancellor,ThoT1U1S More, and hisassistant in carrying Old the Reformation, ThomasCromwell.

68

lands had gone to the king. T his mea nt th at Henryhad more power and more money than earlierkings . In order to establish his authority beyondquest ion, he forbade anyone , except himself, tokeep armed men .

T he authority of the law had bee n almostcompletely destroyed by the lawless behaviour ofnobl es and the ir armed men. Henry used the"C ourt of Star C ha mber", tradit iona lly the kin g'scounc il chamber, to deal wit h lawless nobles, Localjustice that had broken dow n during the wars slowlybegan to operate again . Henry encouraged th e useof heavy fines as punis hment because this gave theCrown money.

Henry's aim was to make the Crown financ iallyindependent, and th e lan ds and th e fines he too kfrom th e old no bilit y helped h im do this. Henryalso raised taxes for wars wh ich he the n did notfigh t . He never spent money unl ess he had to. Onemight expect Henry to have bee n un pop ular, buthe was ca reful to keep the friendship of themerch an t and lesser gentry classes. Like him th eywanted peace and prosperitv, He created a newnobility from among the m, and men unknow nbefore now became Henry's statesmen . But th ey allknew th at th eir rise to importance was completelydependent on the Crown.

W hen He nry died in 1509 he left behind the hugeto ta l of £2 million , abo ut fiftee n years' worth ofincome. T he only th ing on which he was happy tospend money freely was the building of sh ips for amerch ant fleet. Henr y understood earl ier th an mostpeople that Englan d's future wea lth would dependon internation al tra de . A nd in order to trade,Hen ry realised that England must have its own fleetof merch ant sh ipso

Henry VIll was quite unli ke h is fat he r. He wascruel, wasteful with money. and interested inpleasing himself. He wanted to become animportant influence in European politics . But muchhad happened in Europe since England had givenup its efforts to defeat France in the Hundred YearsWar. France was no w more powerful than England,and Spain was even more powe rful, because it wasunited with the Holy Roman Empire (whic h

included much of central Europe). Hen ry VIIIwanted England to hold the balance of powerbetween these two giants. He fi rst unsuccessfullyallied himself with Spain, and when he was notrewarded he cha nged sides. When friendship withFrance did not bring him anyth ing, Henry startedtalking again to C ha rles V of Spa in.

Henry's failure to gain an important position inEuropean poli tics was a bitt er disappointment . Hespent so much on main tain ing a magnificen t court,and on wars from which England had littl e to gain,that his fathe r's carefully saved money was soongone. Gold and silver from newly discoveredAmerica added to economic inflation . In th isserious financial crisis, Henry needed money. O neway of doing th is was by reducing th e amount ofsilver used in co ins . But although th is gave Henryimmediate profits, it rapid ly led to a rise in prices.It was therefore a damaging policy, and th e Englishcoinage was reduced to a seventh of its value withintwen ty-five years.

The ReformationHenry VIII was always look ing for new sources ofmoney. His fathe r had become powerful by takingover the nob les' land. hut the lands owned by theChurch and the monasteries had not been touched.The C hurch was a huge landowner, and themonasteries were no longer important to economicand social growth in the way they had been twohundred years earlier. In fact they were unpop ularbecause many mon ks no longer led a good religiouslife but lived in wealth and comfort.

Henry disliked the power of the Church in Englandbecause, since it was an international organisation ,he could no t complete ly control it. If Hen ry hadbeen powerful eno ugh in Europe to influence thepope it might have been different. But the re weretwo far more powerful states, France, and Spain .with the Holy Roman Empire , lying between h imand Rome. T he power of the C atho lic Church inEngland cou ld therefore work against his ownauthor ity, and the taxes paid to th e C hurch

10 The birth of the nation state

reduced his own income. Hen ry was not the on lyEuropean king with a wish to "centralise" stateautho rity. Many others were doing the same thing.But Henry had anot her reason for standing up to

the authority of the C hurch .

In 1510 Hen ry had married Catherine of Aragon,the widow of h is elder brot he r Arthur. But by 1526she had still not had a son who survived infancyand was now un likely to do so. Henry tr ied to

persuade the pope to allow h im to divorceCa rherine . Normally, Hen ry need not haveexpected any difficulty. His ~h ief min ister, Ca rdinalWolsey, had already been skilful in advising onHen ry's foreign and home policy. Wolsey hopedth at his skills, and hi; important position in theC hurch, would be successful in persuading thepope. But the pope was controlled by C harles V,who was Holy Roman Empero r and king of Spain ,and also Carherine's nephew. For both political andfamily reasons he wanted Henry to stay married toCarherinc. The pope did not wish to anger eithe rCharles or Henry, but eventually he was forced todo as Charles V wanted. He forbade Henry'sdivorce.

Henry was extremely angry and the fi rst person tofeel his anger was his own ministe r, Ca rdina lWolsey. Wolsey only escaped execution by dying ofnatural causes on his way to the king's court, andafter Wolsey no priest ever again became animportant mini ster of the king. In 1531 Hen rypersuaded the bishop s to make h im head of theC hurch in England , and this became law afterParliament passed the Act of Supremacy in 1534. Itwas a pop ular decision . Henry was now free to

divorce C arherine and marry his new love, AnneBoleyn. He hoped Anne would give him a son tofollow h im on the throne .

Henry's break with Rome was purely political. Hehad simply wanted to control the C hurch and tokeep its wealth in his own kingdom . He did notapprove of the new ideas of ReformationProtestanti sm introduced by Mart in Luther inGermany and John Calvin in Geneva. He st illbelieved in the Catholic faith . Indeed , Hen ry hadearlier written a book crit icising Luther's teach ing

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A n Illustrated History of Britai n

and the pope had rewarded him with the titl e FideiDefensor, Defender of the Faith . The pope musthave regretted his act ion . The letters ''F.D." arest ill to be found on every British coin.

Like h is father, Henry VIll governed Englandth rough his close advisers, men who werecomplete ly dependent on him for their position .But when he broke with Rome, he used Parliamen tto make the break legal. Through several Acts ofParliament between 1532 and 1536, Englandbecame politically a Protestant count ry, eventhough the popular religion was st ill Ca tho lic.

O nce England had accep ted th e separation fromRome Henry took the English Reform ation a stepfurthe r. Wolsey's place as the king's ch ief ministerwas taken by one of h is assistants, ThomasCromwell. Henry and C rornwell made a carefulsurvey of C hurch propert y, the first properlyorgan ised tax survey since the Domesday Book 450years earlier. Between 1536 and 1539 th ey closed560 monasteries and ot her religious houses. Henrydid th is in order to make money, but he alsowanted to be popu lar with the rising classes oflandowners and merchants. He therefore gave orsold much of the monaste ries' lands to the m. Man ysmaller land own ers made their fortunes. Mostknock ed down the old monastery build ings and

used the stone to create magnificent new houses forthemselves. Other buildings were just left ro falldown .

Meanwhil e the monk s and nuns were thrown OUL

Some were give n small sums of mone y, but manywere unable to find work and became wand eringbeggars. The dissolution of the monasteries wasproba bly the greate st act of official destruct ion inthe history of Brita in.

Henry proved that h is break with Rome was neith era religious nor a diplomati c disaster. He remainedloyal to Catho lic religious teaching, and exec utedProtestants who refused to accept it. He even madean alliance with Cha rles V of Spa in against France.For poli tical reasons both of them were willing to

forget the quarre l ove r Cathe rine of Aragon, andalso England's break with Rome.

Hen ry died in 1547, leaving beh ind his sixth wife,Carhe rine Parr , and h is three children. Mary, theeldest , was the daught er of Ca rher ine of Aragon .Elizabeth was the daughter of his second wife,Anne Boleyn , whom he had executed because shewas unfaith ful. Nine-year-old Edward was the sonof [ane Seymour, the on ly wife whom Henry hadreally loved, but who had died giving birth to hisonly son .

70

The ruins of Fountairn Abbey inYorkJhire, one of ,hegreatest andweal'hies, English monasteries.It finally surrendered la Henry'sreformarion in 1539. The scainedglass and lead u,indow framesandroofing uere retnOt-'edimmediately. But it «us nol until161 1 that .some of thestone «usraken CO build Founcains Hall.nearby . Eoen so, Ute abbe, u.wso huge chat most of Ute srcnewasnever raken andUte abbeysurvived as a ruin.

The Protestant-Catholic struggleEdward VL, Henry VIII's son, was on ly a ch ildwhen he became king, so the country was ruled bya counc il. A ll the members of thi s counc il werefrom the new nob ility create d by the Tudors. Theywere keen Protestant reform ers because they hadbenefited from the sale of monastery lands. Indeed,all the new landowners knew that they could on lybe sure of keeping the ir new lands if they madeEngland truly Protestant .

Most English peop le st ill believed in rhe oldCatho lic religion . Less tha n half the English wereProtestant by belief, but these people were allowedto take a lead in religious matters. In 1552 a newprayer book was introduced to make sure that allchurches followed the new Prote stant religion .Most people were not very happy with the newreligion. They had been glad to see the end of someof the C hurch's bad practi ces like the selling of"pardons" for the forgiven ess of sins . But they didnot like th e changes in belief, and in some placesthere was troub le.

Marv, the Catholic daughter of Catherine ofAragon, became queen when Edward, aged sixteen ,died in 1553. A group of nobles tried to put Lady

10 Th e birth of the nation stare

[an e G rey, a Protestant, on the th ron e. But Marysucceeded in entering London and took contro l ofthe kingdom. She was supported by the ordinarypeople, who were angered by the greed of theProtestant nobles,

However, Mary was unwise and unbend ing in herpolicy and her bel iefs. She was the first quee n ofEngland since Marilda, 400 years earlier. A t thattime women were considered to be inferior [ 0 men .The marriage of a queen was therefore a difficultmatter. If Mary married an Englishman she wouldbe under th e control of a man of lesser importance.If she married a foreigner it might place Englandund er foreign control.

Mary, for political , religious and family reasons,chose to marry King Phil ip of Spa in. It was anunfortunate cho ice. T he ord ina ry people dislikedth e marriage, as Phi lip's Span ish friends in Englandwere qu ick to notice. Popular feeling was so strongthat a rebe llion in Kent actua lly reached Londonbefore ending in failure . Mary dealt cruelly with therebel leader , Wyatt, but she took the unusual stepof asking Parliament for its op in ion abo ut hermarriage plan . Parliament unwillingly agreed toMarv's marriage , and it on ly accepted Phi lip as kingof England for Marv 's lifetime.

A ProteSfant propaganda picrurt of Edu!ard VIbring told by hisdying father. Henry Vlll . reuphold the true Prolw ant rtligion. AtEdUJard'sfter thepope collapses deftated.Under EdUlard England became farmoreProteSfant rhan befare. andmort Prcrestenr.probabb, than his farher intt nded. The youngkiJJg wasassisted b). men who had profited fromChurch lands andproperryafra the break withRome.

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A n Illustrated History of Britain

Mary's marriage to Phili p was the first mistake ofher unfortunate reign. She then began burningProtestant s. Three hund red peop le died in th is waydur ing her fi ve-year reign , and the burn ings beganto sicken people. A t the same time, the thought ofbecoming a junior ally of Spain was very unpopular.O n ly the knowledge that Mary herself was dyingprevented a popul ar rebellion.

Elizabeth, Mary's half sister, was lucky to becom equeen when Mary died in 1558. Mary hadconsidered killing her , because she was an obviousleader for Protestant revolt. Elizabeth had been wiseenough to say not hing, do nothing, and to exp ressneither Catho lic nor Protestant views whi le Marylived. And Phi lip persuaded Mary to leaveElizabeth unharmed .

When she became queen in 1558, Elizabeth Iwanted to find a peaceful answer to the prob lems ofthe English Reformat ion. She wanted to bringtogethe r again those parts of English society whichwere in religious disagreement. And she wanted tomake England prosperous. In some ways the kind ofProtestantism fi na lly agreed in 1559 remained closerto the Catho lic religion than to othe r Protestan tgroups. But Elizabeth made sure that the C hurchwas st ill unde r her author ity, unlik e polit icallydange rous forms of Protestantism in Europe. In away, she made the C hurch part of the statemachine.

The "parish" , the area served by one church,usually the same size as a village, became the unitof state administrat ion . People had to go to churchon Sundays by law and they were fined if theystayed away. This meant that the parish priest, the"parson" or "vicar", became almost as powerful asthe village squire . Elizabeth also arranged for a bookof sermons to be used in church. A lthough most ofthe sermons consisted of Bible teach ing, thi s bookalso taught the peop le that rebellion again st theCrown was a sin against God.

T he struggle between Catho lics and Protestantscont inued to endanger Elizabeth's position for thenext thi rty years. Both France and Spa in wereCatholic. Elizabeth and her adv isers wanted toavoid open qua rrels with bot h of them. T his was

72

not easy, because both the French and Span ishkings wanted to marry Elizabeth and so joinEngland to their own country. Elizabeth and heradvisers knew how much damage Mary had doneand that it was important that she should avoidsuch a marriage. At the same time, however, therewas a danger that the pope would persuade Catholiccount ries to attack England . Finally, there was adanger from those Catho lic nobles st ill in Englandwho wished to remove Elizabeth and replace herwith the queen of Sco tland , who was a Catho lic.

Mary, the Scott ish queen , usually called "Qu een ofSco ts" , was the heir to the English th ron e becauseshe was Elizabeth's closest living relative, andbecause Elizabet h had not married. Mary's motherhad been French , and Mary had spen t herch ildhood in France, and was a strong Catho lic.When she returned to rule Sco tland as queen , Marysoon made enemies of some of her nob les, and toavoid them she finally escaped to the safety ofEngland . Elizabeth, however , kept Mary as aprisoner for almost twenty years. During that timeElizabet h discovered seve ral secret Catholic plots,some of which clear ly aimed at making Mary queenof England .

It was difficult for Elizabeth to decide what to dowith Mary. She knew that France was unlikely to

attack England in suppor t of Mary. But she wasafraid that Spain might do so. Marv's closeconnection with France. howe ver, was Cl

discouragement to Ph ilip. He would nor wish todefeat Elizabeth only to put Mary on the throne. Itwould be giving England to the French . So for along time Elizabeth just kept Mary as a prisone r.

When Elizabeth finally agreed to Marv's executionin 1587, it was partly because Mary had namedPhilip as her heir to the th rone of England , andbecause with thi s claim Philip of Spain had decidedto invade England . Elizabeth no longer had areason to keep Mary alive. In England Mary'sexecution was popular. The Catholic plot s and thedan gers of a foreign Catholic invasion had changedpeople's feelings. By 1585 most English peoplebel ieved that to be a Catholic was to be an enemyof England. T his hatred of everyth ing Cat ho licbecame an important political force.

11 England and her neighboursT he new foreign policy ' The new trading empire ' Wales' Ireland·Scotland and England ' Mary Queen of Scots and the ScottishReformation' A Scottish king for England

The new foreign policyDuring the Tudor period, from 1485 until 1603 ,English fore ign policy changed severa l t imes. Butby the end of the period England had estab lishedsome basic principles. Henry VII had been carefulto remain friend ly with neighbouring countries. Hisson, Henry VIII, had been more ambitious, hopingto play an importa nt part in Europea n politics. Hewas unsuccessful. Mary allied England to Spain byher marriage. T his was not on ly unpopular but waspolitica lly unwise: England had nothing to gainfrom being allied to a more powerful coun try.Elizabeth and her adv isers conside red trade themost importan t fore ign policy matt er , as Henry VIIhad done. For the m whichever country wasEngland's greates t trade rival was also its greatestenemy. T h is idea remained the basis of England'sforeign policy until the n ineteen th century.

Elizabeth's grandfather, Henry VII, had recognisedthe importance of trade and had built a large fl eetof merch ant ships. His son, Henry VIII, had spentmoney on warsh ips and guns, makin g English gunsthe best in Europe.

Elizabeth's fore ign policy carried Henry VII's workmuch further. encouraging merch ant expansion.She co rrectly recognised Spa in as her main traderival and enemy. Spain at that tim e ruled th eNetherlands, altho ugh many of the people wereProtestant and were fight ing for their independencefrom C at ho lic Spanish rule. Because Spain andFrance were rivals, Spanish soldiers could onlyreach the Netherlands from Spain by sea. This

meant sailing up the English C hannel. Elizabethhelped the Dutch Prot estants by allowing theirsh ips to use English harbours from which they couldattack Spanish sh ips, often with the hel p of theEnglish. When it looked as if the Dutch rebelsmigh t be defeated, after they lost th e city ofAntwe rp in 1585, Elizabeth agreed to help themwith money and soldiers. It was almost an ope ndeclarat ion of war on Spa in.

English sh ips had already been attacking Span ishsh ips as th ey ret urned from A mer ica loaded withsilver and gold. T h is had been going on since abo ut1570, and was the result of Spain's refusal to allowEngland to trade freely with Spanish Ame ricancolon ies. A lthough these English sh ips wereprivate ly ow ned "privateers", the treasure wasshared with the queen . Elizabeth apologised toSpa in but kep t her sha re of wha t had been takenfrom Span ish sh ips. Philip knew quite well thatElizabeth was enco uraging the "sea dogs", as th eywere known. These seamen were traders as well aspirates and adventurers. The most famous of th emwere John Hawkins. Francis Drake and MartinFrobisher, but there were many ot hers who werealso trying to build English sea trade and toint errupt Spa in's .

Phili p decided to conquer England in 1587 becausehe believed thi s had to be done before he would beable to defeat the Dutch rebels in the Ne therlands.He hoped that enough Catho lics in England wouldbe willin g to help h im. Ph ilip's large army wasalready in the Netherlands. He built a great fleet ofsh ips, an "A rmada", to move h is army across the

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A n Illustrated History of Britain

Elizabeth triumphant Thefamous "Armada pomait"shows the Spanish Armada in fuUsail (left) andwrecked uponIreland's shores (right). UnderElizabeth's riJ{hl hand lies theworld, a reference to FrcncsDrake's successful voyage aroundthe world, the expeditions ofother explorers, and England'sgrowing secpower. Elizabethenjoyed glory, andher greatvanity shows in this portrait.

Engl ish C hanne l from th e Ne therlands. But in1587 Fran cis Drake attacked and destroyed part ofth is fleet in Cadiz harbour.

Philip started again, and built the largest fl eet thathad eve r gone to sea. But most of th e sh ips weredesigned to carry soldiers, and the few fighting shipswere not as good as the English ones . English sh ipswere longer and narrower, so that they were faster,and the ir guns could also shoot further than theSpan ish ones.

W he n news of th is Arm ada reached England insummer 1588, Elizabeth called her soldierstogether. She won their hearts with well-chosenwords: "I am come . . . to live or die amongst youall, to lay down for my God, and for my kingdo m,and for my people, my honour and my blood evenin the dust. I know I have th e body of a weak andfeeble woman, but I have the hear t and stomach ofa king, and of a king of England too ."

The Spanish Armada was defeated more by badweather than by English guns. Some Spanish sh ipswere sunk , but most were blown northwards by thewind, many being wrecked on the rocky coasts ofSco tland and Ireland . For England it was aglor ious moment, but it did not lead to an end ofthe war with Spain , and England found itself

74

having to spend more than eve r on England'sdefence. Peace was on ly made with Spain onceElizabeth was dead.

The new trading empireBoth before and after the Armada, Elizabethfollowed two policies. She encouraged Englishsailors like John Hawkin s and Francis Drake tocontinue to attack and dest roy Spanish shipsbringing gold, silver and other treasures back fromth e newly discovered cont ine nt of America. Shealso encouraged English traders to settle abroad andto crea te colo nies. This second policy led directlyto Britain 's colon ial empire of th e seventeenth ande ightee nth ce nturies.

The fi rst English colon ists sailed to Am ericatowards the end of th e century. One of the bestknown was Sir Wa ite r Raleigh , who broughttobacco back to England. T he set tle rs tried withoutsuccess to start profitable co lon ies in Virginia,whic h was na med after Elizabeth , the "v irgin" orunm arried queen. But th ese were on ly beginn ings.

England also began selling West African slaves towork for the Spanish in Amer ica. Joh n Hawkinscarried his first slave cargo in 1562. By 1650 slaveryhad beco me an important trade , bringing wea lth

, ! _ . _ ',!, _ ~ l ',I~

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11 England and her neighhours

A mapof the WOTld dTawn in theearly years ofthe sirreenlhcen[ury shows geographicalknou/ledge decreasing IJ.'i rhdistance from Europe, AUSlTalia.farexample, is sou complerelyunknoun, Ewn so. this map u.usa great imprOtoernent ongeographical knowledge a cenluryeaTlier, By the end of the centuryfaT mere accurate mapswereappearing,

particularly to Bristol in southwest England. It tookuntil the end of the eigh tee nth century for thistrade to be ended.

This growth of trade abroad was not ent irely new.The Merch an t Adventurers Company had alreadybeen established with royal support before the endof the fifteen th cen tury. During Elizabeth's reignmore "chartered" compan ies, as they were known,were established. A "charter" gave a company theright to all the business in its particular trade orregion . In return for thi s important advantage thechartered company gave some of its profits to theCrown. A number of th ese compan ies wereestablished during Elizabeth 's reign: the EastlandCompany to trade with Scandinavia and the Balti cin 1579; the Levan t Company to trade with theOttoman Empire in 1581 ; the Africa Company totrade in slaves, in 1588; and the East IndiaCompany to trade with India in 1600.

The East India Company was established mainl ybecause the Dutch controlled the enti re spice tradewith the East Indies (Indonesia) . Spices wereextremely impor tant for making th e winter saltedmeat tastie r. The English were det ermined to havea share in th is rich trade , but were unsuccessful.However, the East India Company did begin to

operate in India, Persia and even in Japan , where ithad a trading sta t ion from 16 13- 23. The quarrelover spices was England's fi rst difficul ty with theDutch . Before the end of the seventeent h centurytrading compet ition with the Dutch had led tothree wars,

WalesC loser to home, the Tudors did the ir best to bringWales, Ireland and Sco tland und er English contro l.

Henry VII was half W elsh. A t th e battle ofBosworth in 1485 Henry's flag was the red dragonof Wales. It had been the badge of the legendarylast British (Welsh) king to fight against theSaxo ns. At the time , Caxton was printing Malory'spoem Morte d'Arthur. Henry cleverly made themost of popular "Arrhurian" int erest to suggest th athe was somehow connected with the ancien tBritish king, and named his eldest son Arthur. Healso brought man y Wel shmen to his court .

Arrhur, Prince of Wales, died early and Henry'ssecond son became Henry VIII. But he did notsha re his father's love of Wa les. His interest was inpower and authority, th rough direct control. Hewant ed the Welsh to become English .

O ne example of the changes Hen ry VIII made wasin the matter of names. At that time the We lsh didnot have family names. They used the ir own fi rstname with those of the ir father and grandfather,using ap, which mean t "son of". Names were long,and the English , who had been using family namesfor about three hundred years, found them difficult.From 1535 the English put pressure on the Welshto use an English system of names by preventingWe lsh names being used in law courts and onofficial papers. By 1750 the use of Welsh names hadalmost disappeared, altho ugh not before oneWelshman had made a final and hum orous protest.

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An Illustrated History of Britain

He signed h is name "Si on ap William ap Sion apWilli am ap Sion ap Dafvdd ap Ithel Fychan asCy nrig ap Robert ap lowerth ap Rhyrid ap lowerthap Madoc ap Ednawain Bendew, called afte r theEnglish fashion John [ones." Many Wels h peop leacce pted wrong English ways of pronouncing theirnames. Others took their fathers' first names and apRicha rd, ap Robe rt, ap Hywel , ap Hugh soonbecame Pritch ard, Probert , Powell and Pugh.O thers who had not used "ap'' were known asWi lliams, Thomas, Davies, Hughes and so on .

Between 1536 and 1543 Wa les became join ed toEngland und er one admin istration. English law wasnow the only law for W ales. Local Wel shmen wereappoin ted as JPs, so that the \Velsh genr ry becamepart of the ruling English establishment. Thoseparts of Wales which had not been "shired" werenow organ ised like English count ies. Wel shmenentered the English parliament. English beca me theon ly official language, and Welsh was soo n on lyspoken in the hi lls. Although Wel sh was notallowed as an official language, Henry VIII gaveperm ission for a Welsh Bible to be prin ted, wh ichbecame the basis on which the We lsh languagesurvived.

Alth ough most peop le gave up speaking Wel sh,poets and singers continued to use it . The spokenword had remain ed the most important part ofWel sh culture since th e Saxon invasion . Theintroduction of schoo ls, using English, almostdestroyed thi s last fortress of Welsh culture. Thegathe rings of poets and singers, known aseisteddfods , which had been going on since 1170sudden ly stopped. But at the end of the eight eenthcentury, there were still a few who cou ld speakWel sh. Eisteddfods began again, bringing back atradit ion which st ill cont inues today.

IrelandHenry VIII wanted to bring Ireland und er hisaut ho rity, as he had don e with Wales. Earlier kingshad allowed the powerful Angle -Irish noble familiesto rule, but Hen ry destroyed their power. Hepersuaded the Irish parliament to recognise him asking of Ireland.

76

However, Henry also tried to make the Irish accepthis English C hurch Reformation . But in Ireland,unlike England , the mon asteries and the C hurchwere still an important part of eco nomic and soc iallife. And the Irish nobility and gent ry, unlik e theEnglish , felt it was too dangerous to take monasticland. T hey refused to touch it. W hen an Anglo­Irish noble rebelled against Henry VIII, he did so inthe na me of Catho licism. Henry VIII failed to getwhat he wanted in Ireland. In fact he made thingsworse by bring ing Irish nat iona lism andC atholicism together against English rule.

It is possible that , with out the dan ger of fore igninvasion. the Tudors might have give n up trying {Q

control the Irish. But Ireland tempted Catho licEurope as a place from which to attack the English.In 1580 , during Elizabeth l's reign , man y Irishrebe lled, encouraged by the arrival of a few Spanishand French soldiers.

Queen Elizabeth' s soldiers saw the rebellious Irishpopu lat ion as wild and prim itive peop le and treatedthem with great crue lty. Edmund Spenser, a famousElizabetha n poet, was secreta ry to the Englishcommander. Aft er the rebellion was defeated hewrote, "Out of every corner of the woods ... they[the Irish rebels] came creeping forth upon theirhands, for the ir legs would not beat them. Theylooked like ... death . They spoke like ghostscrying out of their graves. They did eat th e dead. . . happy where they could fi nd them ."

The Tudors fough t four wars dur ing the period tomake the Irish accept their authority and th eirreligion . In the end they destroyed the old Gaelicway of life and introduced English government .

Ireland became England 's first impor tant colony.T he effect of Engl ish rule was greatest in the north ,in Ulster, where the Irish tribes had fough t longest.Here, after the Tudor conquest , lands were takenand sold to Engl ish and Sco tt ish merchants. Thenat ive Irish were forced to leave o r to work forthese settlers.

The Protestant settlers took most of the good landin Ulster. Even today most good land in Ulster isowned by Protestants, and most poor land byCatho lics. The coun ty of Derry in U lster was taken

over by a group of London merchants and div idedamong rhe twelve main London guilds. The townof Derry was ren amed Londonderry, afte r its newmerchant ow ners. Th is colonisation did not makeEngland richer, but it destroyed much of Ireland'ssociety and economy. It also laid the foundat ionsfor war between Protestants and Catholics in Ulsterin the second half of th e twentieth cen tury.

Scotland and EnglandThe Sco tt ish monarchs tried to in troduce the samekind of centralised monarch y tha t the Tu dors hadsosuccessfully developed in England. But it wasmuch harder, because the Scottish econo my wasweaker, and Scortish society more lawless.However, James IV, [arnes V, Mary who wasexec uted by her cousin Elizaberh of England, andher son [arnes VI made important steps forward.They tried to control the lawless border countrywith England, and rhe disobedient Highland clansin the north . For the Sco tt ish kings th ere wasalways a prob lem. T he most disobedient were ofte nthe best fi ghters, and no king wanted to makeenemies of those who migh t help h im in batt leaga inst the English .

Knowing how weak they were, the Scottish kingsusually avo ided war with England . They made apeace treaty wirh Henry VII, the first with anEngl ish king since 1328, and [arnes IV marriedHenry's daughter Margaret. But Henry VIII stillwanted Scotland to accept his authority. In 151 3his army dest royed th e Sco tt ish army at F1OOden. Itwas the worst defeat the Scots ever experienced.[ames himself was killed, an d with h im ove r twentyScottish nob les,

The battl e of Flodde n increased the disagreementbetween those Scott ish nobles who felt thatScotland shou ld move towards a closer friendsh ipwith Eng land and those who wanted to remainloya l to the Auld A lliance with France. TheScottish monarch had to find a balance betweenthese two, to keep bot h his nobles and hisneighbours happy . The Protestant Reformation inEurope, and particu larly in England, also increasedthe uncertainty and danger. T he re was talk of a

11 England and herneighbours

Catho lic invasion of England by France and Spa in.Many Sco ts wanted to stay on the side of CatholicEurope in the hope of sha ring the fruits of aCarho lic invasio n of England.

But Henry VIII reminded th e Scots th at it wasdangerous to work against him. He sent ano the rarmy into Sco tland to make the Sco tt ish James Vaccepr his authority. [ames's army was badly de­feated and [ arnes himself died shor tly after. Henryhoped to marry h is son Edwarc! to the baby Q ueenof Sco ts, Mary, and in th is way join the twocountries toge the r under an English king. A nagreement was reached in 1543.

O rdinary Scots were most unhappy at the idea ofbeing ruled by England. In spite of the ir fear of thepowerful English armies, a new Scottish par liament,aware of popu lar feeling, tu rned down the marriageagreement. For the next two years English soldierspunished th em by burn ing and destroying rhehouses of sout hern Sco tland. Rather than give littl eMary to the English, the Sco ts sent her to France ,where she married the French king's son in 1558.

Mary Queen of Scots and theScottish ReformationMary was troub led by bad luck and wrong dec isions.She returned to Sco tland as both queen and widowin 156 1. She was Catho lic, but during he r time inFrance Scotland had become officially andpopu larly Protestant.

The Scottish nobles who supported friendship withEngland had welcomed Protestantism for bot hpolitical and economic reasons. The new religionbrought Sco tland closer to England than France.Financially, the Sco tt ish mona rch could take ove rth e great wealth of the C hurch in Sco tland and th iswou ld almost certa inly mean awards of land to thenobles, The yearlv income of the C hurch inSco tland had been twice that of the monarch .

Un like the English, however, the Scots werecareful not to give the monarch authority over thenew Protestant Scottish "Kirk", as the C hurch inSco tland was ca lled. This was possible because theReform ation took place whil e rhe queen, Mary, was

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An Illustrated History of Britain

not in Sco tland, and unable to int erfere. The newKirk was a far more democratic organisation thanth e English Ch urch, because it had no bishops andwas governed by a Genera l Assembly. The Kirktaugh t th e importance of personal belief and thestudy of the Bible, and this led quickly to th e ideathat education was important for eve ryone inSco tland. As a result most Sco ts remained bettereducated than othe r Europeans, incl uding theEnglish , un til the end of the nineteen th century.

Protestantism had spread quickly th rough theSco tt ish universitie s, which were closely connectedto those in Ge rmany and Scandinavia. The newKirk in Scotland disliked Mary and her FrenchCatho licism. Mary was careful not to give the Kirkany reason for actua lly opposing her. She made itclea r she would not try to brin g back Ca tholicism.

Mary was soon married again, to Lord Damley, a'Scottish Catho lic'. But when she tired of him, sheallowed herself to agree to his murder and marri edthe murderer, Bothwel l. Scott ish society, in spite ofits lawlessness, was shocked. T he Englishgovemment did not look forward to the possibilityof Mary succee ding Elizabe th as queen . In additionto her Cathol icism and her strong Frenc h culture,she had show n very poor judgement. By herbehaviour Mary probably destroyed her cha nce ofinheri t ing the English throne. She found herself atwar with her Sco tt ish oppone nts, and was sooncap tured an d impri soned. However, in 1568 sheescaped to England , where she was held byElizabeth for nineteen years before she was finallyexec uted.

A Scottish king for EnglandMary's son, [ ames VI, started to rule at the age oftwelve in 1578. He showed great skill from an earlyage. He knew that if he behaved correc tly he couldexpect to inheri t the English throne afterElizabeth's death , as he was her closest relati ve. Healso knew that a Ca tho lic alliance between Spainand France might lead to an invasion of England sohe knew he had to remain friendlv with them too.He managed to "face both ways" , while remainingpublicly the Protestant ally of England.

78

Mary Queen of Scots had poor judgement, but she was a beauty. Neither ofthese qualities helped her in her relations with her cousin Elizabeth 1, and anact offoolishness finally los t her her head.

[ames VI is rememb ered as a weak man and a baddecision -maker. But thi s was not true whil e he wasking only in Sco tland. Early in his reign, in the lastyears of the sixteenth century, he rebuilt theauthority of the Sco tt ish C rown after the disasterswhich had happened to his mother, grand fatherand great-grandfather. He brough t the Cat holicand Protestant nobles and also the Kirk more or lessunder royal con tro l. These were the successes of anextremel y clever diplomat. Like the Tudors, he wasa firm believer in th e author ity of the Crown , andlike them he worked with sma ll counc ils ofmini sters, rather th an Parliament. But he did nothave the money or military power of the Tudors.

[arnes VI's greatest success was in gaining theEnglish throne when Elizabet h died in 1603 at theunu sually old age of 70. If Elizabeth 's advisers hadhad serious doubts about [arnes as a suitableProtestant ruler, they would probably have tried to

fi nd ano ther successor to Elizabeth . Few in Englandcould have liked the idea of a new king comingfrom Scotland, their wild northern neighbour. Thefact that England accepted him suggests that itsleading sta tesmen had confidence in [arnes's skills.

12 Government and societyTudor parliaments ' Rich and poor in town and country ' Domesticlife' Language and culture

During the Tudor period the changes ingovernmen t, society and the eco nomy of Englandwere more far-reaching tha n they had been forcenturi es. But most far-reach ing of all were thechanges in ideas, partly as a result of the rebirth ofinte llect ual att itudes known as th e Renaissance,which had spread slowly northwards from itsbeginnings in Italy. In England the nature of theRenaissance was also affected by the Protestan tReformation and the econo mic changes thatfollowed from it.

Tudor parliamentsThe Tudor monarchs did not like gove rn ingthrough Parliamenr. Hen ry VII had usedParliamen t on ly for law making. He seldo m calledit together, and the n only when he had a parti cularjob for it. Henry VIII had used it first to misemoney for his milita ry adventures, and then for hisstruggle with Rome. His aim was to make sure thatthe powerful members from the shires and townssupported h im, because they had a great dea l ofcont rol over popu lar feel ing. He also wan ted tofrighten the priests and bishops into obeying him ,and to frighten the pope into giving in to hisdemands.

Perhaps Hen ry h imself did not realise that byinviting Parliament to make new laws for theReformation he was giving it a level of aut hority itnever had before. Tu dor mon arch s were certainlynot more democratic than earlier kings, but byusing Parliament to strengthen their policy, th eyactually inc reased Parliament's author ity.

Parliamen t strengthened its position again duringEdward VI's reign by ordering the new prayer bookto be used in all churches, and forbiddin g theCatho lic mass. W hen the Ca tho lic Qu een Marvcame to the throne she succeeded in makingParl iament cance l all th e new Reform ation laws,and agree to her marriage to Philip of Spain. Burshe could not persuade Parliament to accept him asking of England after her death .

O n ly two things persuaded Tudor mon arch s not toget rid of Parliament altogethe r: they needed mon eyand they needed the support of the merch ants andland owners. In 1566 Queen Elizabeth told theFrench ambassador that the three parliaments shehad already held were enough for any reign and shewould have no more . Today Parliament must meetevery year and rem ain "in session" for three,quarters of it. Th is was not at all the case in thesixteenth ce ntury.

In the early sixteenth century Parl iament on ly metwhen the monarc h ordered it . Sometimes it mettwice in one year, but then it might not meet againfor six years. In the first forty-four years of Tudorrule Parliament mer on ly twenty times. Henry VIIIassembled Parliament a littl e more often to makethe laws for C hurch reformation . But Elizabeth,like he r grandfat her Hen ry VII, tried not to useParliament afte r her Reformation Sett lement of1559, and in forty-four years she only letParliamen t meet th irteen times.

During the cen tury power moved from the House ofLords to the House of Commons. T he reason forthis was simple. The Members of Parliament (MPs)in the Commons represent ed rich er and more

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A n Illustrated History of Britain

influen tial classes than the Lords. In fac t, th e ideaof gett ing rid of the House of Lords, sti ll a realquestion in British polit ics today, was first suggestedin the sixteenth ce ntury.

The o ld system of representat ion in the Commons,with two men from each county and two from each"borough", or town, remained the rule. However,during the sixteenth century th e size of theCommons nea rly dou bled , as a resul t of th einclusion of We lsh boroughs and coun ties and theinclusion of more Eng lish boroughs.

But Parliament d id not reall y represent the peopl e.Few MPs followed the rule of livin g in the area theyrepresented, and the monarchy used its influence tomake sure that man y MPs would support roya lpolicy, rather than the wishes of the ir electors.

In order to co ntrol discussion in Parliament, theCrown appointed a "Speaker". Even today theSpeaker is respo nsible for good behaviour duringdebates in the House of Commo ns. His job inTudor times was to make sure that Parliamentdiscussed what the monarch wanted Parli ament todiscuss, and th at it made the dec ision whi ch he orshe wanted .

Unti l the end of the T udor period Parli amen t wassupposed to do three things: agree to the taxesneeded; make th e laws which th e Crown suggested;and advise the Crown , but on ly when asked to doso. In order for Parl iament to be ab le to do theseth ings, MPs were given important rights: freedomof speec h (t ha t is freedo m to speak the ir th ough tsfree ly wit ho ut fear), freedo m from fear of arrest,and freedom to mee t and speak to the monarch .

T he T udor monarchs realised that by askingParliament for money they were giv ing it power inthe runn ing of the kingdom. A ll the T udormonarchs tried to get money in other ways. By1600 Elizabet h had found ways to raise money thatwere extreme ly unwise. She sold "monopo lies",whic h gave a particular person or com pany to ta lcontrol over a trade. In 1601 , th e last parliamen t ofElizabeth's reign complaine d to her about th e badeffect on free trade that these monopoli es had .

80

Elizabet h and her adv isers used o the r methods. Sheand her ch ief adv iser, Lord Burghl ey, sold officialpos it ions in govern ment. Burghl ey was paid about£860 a year, but he actu all y made at least £4,000 bysell ing official position s. He kept th is secret fromParl iament. Elizabeth's meth ods of raising moneywould tod ay be cons ide red dishon est as well asfooli sh .

In th eir old age Elizabeth and Burghl ey noticed less,and becam e more ca reless and slower at makingdecisions. They allowed the tax system to becomeless 'effect ive , and failed to keep information onhow much money peo ple sho uld be paying. Englandneeded tax reform, wh ich cou ld only be ca rried outwith the agreeme nt of Parli ament. Parli amentwanted to avoi d th e ma tt er of tax, and so did localgove rnment because the JPs who were responsiblefor co llec t ing ta xes were also lan dlords who wouldhave to pay them. As JPs were not pa id, they sawno reason for co llec ti ng unpopu lar taxes. Elizabethleft her successors to dea l with the probl em .

Elizabeth avo ided ope n discussion on moneymatters with Parliament. Th ere was clea rly anunanswered question about the limits ofParliamen t's power. W ho sho uld dec ide wha tParliament could discuss: the Crown or Parliamentitself? Both th e T udor monarchs and th eir MPswould have agreed th at it was the Crown th atdec ided. However, dur ing the sixteenth century theTudors asked Parliament to discuss, law-m ak e andadvise on almost eve ry subject.

Parliament natu rally began to th ink it had a right to

discuss th ese quest ions . By th e end of the sixteenthce ntury it was beginning to show new confidence,and in the seve ntee nth century, when the gentryand merchant classes were far more aware of theirown strength, it was obv ious that Parliament wouldcha llenge th e Crown. Even tuall y th is resulted inwar.

Rich and poor in town andcountryEven in 1485 much of th e countryside was sti lluntouch ed. There were still great forests of oaktrees, and unu sed land in between. There were st ill

Harduick Hall in Derbyshire,built in the 1580s, astonishedlocal people /ry ,hedaring use ofsomuch glass. Never haddomestic buildings been so light""de. The owner, Efi,abelh ofShrewsbury, wasnewly wealthyand anxiOlLS to be rememberedSo she Juul the initials ''E.S. "placed in the stonework. InTudor rimes fumirure becamebetter. Chairs replaced benchesand stools. feather menressesrep~lCed straw mattresses. By/600 thechests used to storeclothes weretarger , withadrawer in the bouom. It ucs thebeginning of the chest of drawers.

12 Government and sac icty

wild an ima ls, wild pigs. wild ca ttle . and even a fewwolves. Sca ttered across this countryside were"islands" of human settle ment . villages and towns.Few towns had more than 3.000 people. th e size ofa large village today. Most towns, anyway, were nomore th an large villages. with th eir own fie lds andfarms. Even London , a large city of over 60, 000 by1500, had fields farmed by its c it izens .

In the sixtee nth ce ntury, however, this picturebegan to change rapidly. The pop ulat ion increased.the unused land was cleared for sheep. and largeareas of forest were cut down to provide wood forthe grow ing shipbuild ing indust ry. England wasbeginning to experience greater socia l andeconomic problems than ever before.

The price of food and othe r goods rose steeplyduring the sixteenth and early seventeenthcenturies. Th is inflation was without equal un til thetwen tieth ce ntury. T he price of wheat and barley.necessary for bread and beer, increased over fivetimes betwee n 1510 and 1650. W h ile most ot herprices increased by five t imes between 1500 and1600. real wages fell by half. The governme nt triedto deal with the probl em of risin g costs by makingcoins which co ntained up to 50 per ce nt lessprecious meta l. T h is only reduced the value ofmoney, hel ping to push prices up.

People tho ugh t that in flation was caused by silverand go ld po uring into Europe from Span ish

A merica. But a grea te r prob lem was th e suddenincrease in populat ion. In England and W ales thepopulation almos t doubled from 2.2 million in 1525to four milli on in 1603. T wice the number ofpeo ple needed twice the amount of food. It was notproduced. Living conditions got worse as thepopulation rose. It is not surprising that fewerpeople married than ever before.

In the co unt ryside th e peop le who did best in thissituation were the yeoman farmers who had at least100 ac res of land. T hey produced food to sell, andemp loyed men to work on their land. T hey workedas farmers during the week. bur were "gentlemen"on Sund ays. They were able to go on increasin gth eir prices because there was no t enough food inthe markets.

Most peop le. however. had on ly twenty acres ofland or less. T hey had to pay rent for the lan d. andoften found it d iffi cult to pay when the rentincreased . Because of the grow ing population it washarder for a man to find work, or to produceeno ugh food for h is family.

Many landowners found they cou ld make moremoney from sheep farming than from grow ingcrops. They co uld sell the wool for a good price toth e rapidly growing cloth industry. In order to keepsheep they fenced off land that had always belongedto the whole village. Enclosing land in this way was

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A n Illustrated H istory of Britain

A wedding fe(1jt in the village ofBermondsey, nowa Londonsuburb. Merry-making isjustbeginning. and theviewgiws usa good idea of village life. TheT ower of London cm be seenacross the river in thebackground.

often against the law, but because JPs werethemselves landlords, few peasan ts could prevent it.As a result many poor people lost the land theyfarmed as well as th e common land where th ey keptanimals, and the tot al amount of land used forgrowing food was reduced.

T here was a clear con nection between the dama gecaused by enclos ures and the growth of the clothtrade As one man watchi ng the problem wrote in1583, "t hese enclos ures be th e causes why rich meneat up poor men as beasts do eat grass." All th roughthe century the gove rnment tried to controlenclosures but without much success. Man y peoplebecame unem ployed.

There were warn ing signs that the problem wasgrowing. In 1536 large numbers of people from thenorth march ed to London to show their anger atthe dissoluti on of the monasteries. Th eir reasonswere only partly rel igious. As life had becom eharder, the monasteries had given employmen t tomany and provided food for the very poor . This"Pilgrimage of Grace", as it was known , was cruelly

82

put down, and its leaders were exec uted. Withoutwork to do, man y peop le sto le food in order to eat.It is thought th at about 7,000 th ieves were hangedduring Henry VIII's reign.

Efforts were made by governmen t to keep orde r in asituat ion of rising unem ployment. In 1547Parliament gave magistrates the power to take anyperson who was without work and give him for twoyears to any local farmer who wanted to use him .Any person found homeless and unemployed asecond t ime could be exec uted. It did not solve thecrime problem. As one foreign visitor reported,"There are incredible numbers of robbers here, theygo about in bands of twenty ... "

In 1563 Parliament made JPs responsible fordeciding on fair wages and work ing hours. A workerwas expected to sta rt at fi ve o'clock in th e morningand work until seven or eight at night with rwo anda half hours allowed for meals. In order to controlthe growing problem of wandering homel ess people,workers were not allowed to move from the parishwhere they had been born without permission . But

A urealury famil., in the 156Os,The girls in w centre are[wins,but !he family likeness of w oWrsis evident Children wore the samestyle of clothing as wir parents.The dinner tables of W great andU<a1thy IuuJ become a good dealmore Q'Tderly since [hedays of SirGeof{rey LurrreU(see page 57),Parents ofr.en placed 'heir childrenat !he ageof eight or nine inhouseholds of highersocialstanding, This offered the chance ofanadvantageous TlUlm'age latt"r,and a rise in statusandwealth.

12 Government and society

already there were probably ove r 10,000 homele sspeople on the roads.

Good harvests thro ugh most of the centuryprobably saved England from disaster , but the rewere bad ones bet ween 1594 and 1597, making theproblem of the poor worse again. In 1601Parliame nt passed the first Poor Law. This madelocal peop le responsible for the poor in thei r ownarea. It gave power to JPs to raise mon ey in theparish to prov ide food, housing and work for thepoor and homeless of the same parish .

Many of the poor moved to towns, where there wasa danger they would join togethe r to fight againstand destroy their rulers. The gove rnment had goodreason ro be afraid. In 1596, during the period ofbad harvests, peasants in Oxfordshire rioted againstthe enclos ures of common land. Apprentices inLondo n rioted against th e city authorit ies. TheElizabetha n Poor Law was as much a symbo l ofauthor ity as an act of kindness. It remain ed inoperat ion unr !I 1834.

T he pat tern of employment was changing. T heproduction of finished cloth , the most important ofEngland's products, reached its greatest importanceduring the sixtee nth century. C lothma kers andmerchants bought raw wool, gave it to spinners,who were mostly women and children in cottages,collected it and passed it on to weavers and ot herclo thworkers. Then they sold it .

T he successful men of this new capitalist classshowed off their success by building magnificenthouses and churches in the villages where theyworked. England destroyed the Flemish cloth­making industry, but took advantage of the specia lski lls of Flemish craftsmen who came to England.

The lives of rich and poo r were very different. T herich ate good qua lity bread made from wheat, whilethe poor ate rough bread made from rye and barley.When the re was not enough food the poor madetheir bread from beans, peas, or oats. The richshowed off their wealth in silk, woo llen or linenclothing, wh ile the poor wore simple clo thes ofleather or wool.

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An Illustrated History of Britain

By using coa l instead of wood fires, T udor Englandlearn t how to make greatly improved steel,necessary for modern weapons. Henry VIII replacedthe longbow with the musket , an early kind ofhand-held gun. Muskets were not as effective aslongbows, but gunpowder and bullets were cheaperthan arrows, and the men cheaper to train.Improved stee l was used for makin g kni ves andforks, clocks, watches, nail s and pins. Birmingham,by using coa l fires to make steel , grew in thesixteenth ce ntury from a vill age into an importantindustri al city. In both Birmingham andManc hester ambitious members of the working andtrading classes could now develop new industries,free from th e controls placed on workers by th etrade guilds in London and in many ot her oldertowns.

Coa l was unpopular, but it burnt bette r than woodand became the most commonly used fuel ,espec ially in London , the rapidly growing capita l.In Henry VIII's reign Lond on had roughly 60,000inh abit an ts. By the end of the cent ury th is numberhad grown to almost 200,000. In 1560 Lond on used33,000 ton s of coa l from Newcas tle, hut by 1600 itused five times as much, and the smoke darken edthe sky ove r London . A foreign ambassador wroteth at the city stan k, and was "the filthi est in theworld".

Domestic lifeForeign visitors were surprised that wo men inEngland had greater freedom than anywhere else inEurope. A lthoug h they had to obey the ir husbands,they had self-confidence and were not kep t h iddenin the ir homes as women were in Spa in and otherco untries. Th ey were allowed free and easy wayswith strangers. As one fore igne r delightedlynot iced, "You are received with a kiss by all, whenyou leave you are sent wit h a kiss. You return andkisses are repeated. II

However, there was a dark side to married life .Most women bore betwee n eight and fifteench ildren, and many women died in ch ildb irt h .T hose who did not saw half their ch ildren die at a

84

young age. No one dared ho pe for a long marriedlife because the dangers to life were too great. Forthis reason, and because marriage was often aneco nomic arrangement, deep emotiona l ties oftenseem to have been absent. When a wife died, ahusband looked for ano ther.

Both rich and poor lived in small family groups.Brothers and siste rs usually did not live with eachother or with their parents once they had grown up.They tried to find a place of their own. Over halfth e popu lation was und er twenty-five , while fewwere ove r sixty. Queen Elizabeth reac hed the age ofseventy, but thi s was unusual. People expec ted to

work hard and to die young. Poor ch ildren startedwork at the age of six or seve n.

A n Italian visitor to England gives an interestingview of English society in T udor times: "T heEnglish are great lovers of themselves, and ofeve ryth ing belonging to them ; th ey th ink that thereare no other men than themsel ves, and no o therworld but England : and whenever they see ahandsome foreigner, they say tha t 'he looks like anEnglishman' ." The English did not love th eirchildren, he tho ugh t, for "hav ing kept them athom e till they arrive at the age of seve n or nineyears at the most, th ey put them out , boys andgirls, to ha rd service in the houses of ot her people,hold ing th em to seven or eight years' hard service.They say they do it in order that their ch ildrenmight learn better manners. But I believe that theydo it because they are bette r served by strangersthan they would be by their own ch ildren."

In spite of the hard condit ions of life , most peoplehad a larger and better home to live in tha n everbefore. Ch imneys, whic h before had only beenfound in the homes of the rich , were now built inevery house. This technical deve lopment madecooking and heating easier and more comfortable.For the fi rst time more than one room co uld be usedin winter.

Between 1530 and 1600 almost eve ryone doubledthe ir living space. After 1570 the wealthy yeoman'sfamily had eight or more rooms and workers'families had th ree rooms instea d of one, and morefurniture was used than ever before.

One group of people suffered part icularly badlyduring the Tudor period . These were the unmarriedwomen. Before the Reformation many of thesewomen could become nuns, and be assured that inthe religious life they would be safe and respected.After the dissolution of the monasteries, thousandsbecame beggars on the roads of England. In fut urean unmarried woman could on ly hope to be aservant in someo ne else's house, or to be kept byher own family. She had littl e cho ice in life.

Language and cultureAt the beginn ing of th e T udor period English wasstill spoken in a number of different ways. T herewere st ill reminders of the Saxon, Angle, Jute andViking invas ions in the different forms of languagespoken in differen t part s of the country. S ince thetime of C ha ncer. in the mid-fourteenth cent ury,London English, itself a mixtu re of south Mid landand southeastern English , had become accepted asstandard English. Printing made this standardEnglish more widely accepted amongst th e literatepopulat ion . For th e first time, peop le started tothink of London pron unciat ion as "correct"pronunciat ion. O ne educator in Hen ry VIII's tim espoke of the need to teach ch ildren to speakEnglish "which is clean , polite, [and] perfectly . ..pronou nced." Until T udor t imes the local forms ofspeech had been spoken by lord and peasan t alike.From T udor t imes onwards the way peop le spokebegan to show the difference between the m.Educated peop le began to speak "co rrect" English,and uneducated people cont inued to speak the localdialect .

Li teracy increased greatly during the rnid-slxrcen rhcentury, even though the religious houses, whichhad always prov ided trad itiona l educat ion, hadclosed. In fact , by the seve nteenth century abouthalf th e popul at ion could read and write.

Nothi ng, however, showed England's newconfidence more than its artistic flowering duringthe Ren aissance. England felt the effects of theRenaissance later than much of Europe because itwas an island. In the early years of the sixteenthcentu ry English th in kers had beco me interested in

12 Gove rnment and society

the work of the Dutch philosopher Erasmus, O ne ofthem , Thomas More, wrote a study of the idealnation , ca lled Utopia, which became extremelypopu lar throughout Europe .

T he Renaissance also infl uenced religion ,encouraging the Protestan t Reformat ion, as well asa freer approac h to ways of thinking within theCatho lic Ch urch . In music England enj oyed itsmost fruitful period ever. There was alsoconsiderab le interest in the new pain ters in Europe,and England developed its own special kind ofpainting, the miniature portrait.

literature, however, was England's greatest artform. Playwrights like C hrisrophe r Marlowe, Ben[onson , and Will iam Sha kespeare filled the theatre swith their exciting new plays.

Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon . andwent to the local grammar school. His educationwas typical of the T udor age, because at th is timethe "grammar" schoo ls, whic h tried to teach"correct" English, became the co mmonest form ofeducati on . His plays were popular with botheducated and uneducated people. Man y of h is playswere about English h istory, but he changed fact tosuit public opinion.

No th ing shows the adventurous spirit of the agebetter than the "soldier poets" . These were trueRenaissance men who were both brave and cruel inwar, but also h ighly educated . Sir Edmund Spenser,who fought with the army in Ireland , was one. SirPh ilip Sidney , killed fighting th e Span ish in theNetherlands, was ano ther. A th ird was Sir WaiterRaleigh , adve nt urer and poet. W hile imprisoned inthe Tower of London waiting to be executed,he wrote a poem which describes how time takesaway youth and gives back on ly old age and dust . Itwas found in his Bible afte r his execution:

Even such is time, that takes in trustO ur youth, our joys, our all we have,And pays us bur with earth and dust .Who , in the dark and silent grave,Whe n we have wand ered all our ways.Shu ts up the story of our days.But from th is earth, thi s grave, thi s dust ,My God sha ll raise me up, I trust.

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86

The Stuarts13 Crown and Parliament

Parliament against the Crown . Religious disagreement . Civil war

The Sruarr monarchs, from James I onwards, wereless successful than the Tudors. T hey quarrelledwith Parliament and thi s resulted in civil war. Theonly king of England ever to be tried and executedwas a Sruarr, The republic that followed was evenmore unsuccessful, and by popular demand the deadking's son was ca lled back to the throne. AnotherStuarr king was driven from his throne by his owndaughter and her Dutch husband, W illiam ofOrange. Wi lliam became king by Parliament 'selection, not by right of birth . Whe n the lastStuart , Queen Anne, died in 1714, the mon arch ywas no longer absolute ly powerful as it had beenwhen [arnes VI rode south from Sco tland in 1603.It had become a "parliamentary monarch y"controlled by a constitution.

These important changes did not take place simplybecause the Sruarts were bad rulers. T hey resultedfrom a basic change in society. Durin g theseventeenth century eco no mic power moved evenfas ter int o the hands of the merchant andlandowning farmer classes. T he Crown cou ld nolonger raise money or govern without their eo­operation. T hese groups were represented by theHouse of Commons. In ret urn for money th eCommons deman ded polit ical power. The victoryof the Commo ns and the classes it represented wasunavoidable.

Charles I on horseback, pcinred in 1633 lry the great COUT! painter AnlhonyVan Dyck. This pictureannounces the triumph 0/ kingship. At the timeCharles was at the heighl of his poo.'ef. He had no need of Parliament andifseemed [hat the king could rule alone, as the king of France u.w doing.Charlesuus farally wrong. Ir was Parliament char triumphed during theset't'l'lreenmcentury. By rhe end of the century rhe pceers of !he sotJeTeignuere umired by !he UJiU of PllTUamenL. In the bottom lefl corner are theSruan arms. combiningfor the finl time theEnglish "quarteTS"uirh the ScunishUan Rampanland the IrishHarp.

It would be interestin g to know how the T udorswould have dealt with the growing power of theHouse of Commons. They had been lucky not to

have thi s prob lem . But they had also been more

lames I U '(IS a disappoimmenr to the Engltih. As lames VI in Scotland hehad cered skilfully to suroive the plots of his nobks. In England he was beuerknown farhis Luk of skiUin dealingU1Ut Parliament and wiUt his ministers.

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An Illustrated History of Britain

willing to give up their beliefs in order that theirpolicies would succeed. The Stuarts, on the otherhand, held onto their beliefs however much it costthem, even when it was foolish to do so.

The political developments of the per iod alsoresulted from basic changes in th inking in theseventeenth cen tury. By 1700 a ruler like HenryVIII or Elizabeth 1 would have been quiteunthinkable. By the time Q ueen Anne died, a newage of reason and science had arriv ed,

Parliament against the CrownThe first signs of trouble between Crown andParliament came in 1601 , when the Commons wereangry over Elizabeth's policy of selling monopoli es.But Parliament did not demand any changes . It didnot wish toupset th e agein g queen whom it fearedand respecred ,

Like Elizabeth, [arnes 1 tried to rule with outParliament as much as possible. He was afraid itwould interfere , and he preferred to rule with asmall counc il.

[ames was clever and well educated. As a child inScotland he had been kidn apped by groups ofnobl es, and had been forced to give in to the Kirk.Because of these experiences he had developedstrong beliefs and opin ions . The most important ofthese was his belief in the divine right of kings. Hebelieved that the king was chosen by God andtherefore on ly God could judge him . [ ames's ideaswere not different from those of earlier monarchs,or other mon archs in Europe.

He expressed these opin ions open ly, however, andthi s led to trouble with Parliament. [arnes had anunfortunate ha bit of saying someth ing true or cle verat the wrong moment. The French king described[ames as "the wisest fool in C hristendo m". It wasunkind , but true. [arnes, for all his clevern ess,seemed to have lost the commonsense which hadhelped him in Sco tland.

When Elizabeth died she left James with a hugedebt, larger than the total yearly income of theCrown. [arues had to ask Parliamenr to raise a tax

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to pay the debt. Parliament agreed, but in returninsisted on the right to discuss [ames's home andforeign policy . [arnes, however , insisted th at healone had the "divine tight" to make thesedecisions. Parliament disagreed, and it wassupported by the law.

Jame s had made rhe mistake of appoin tingElizabeth 's mini ster , Sir Edward Coke, as Ch iefJustice . Co ke made decisions based on the lawwhich limited the king's power. He judged that theking was not above the law I and even moreimportant , that the king and his counc il could notmake new laws. Laws could on ly be made by Act ofParliament. [ ames removed Coke from the positionof Chief Justice, but as an MP Coke cont inued tomake troubl e. He reminded Parliamen t of MagnaCart a, interpreting it as the great cha rte r of Englishfreedom. Although this was not really true , hisclaim was poli tically useful to Parliament. This wasthe first quarrel between [ ames and Parliament, andit started the bad feeling which lasted dur ing hisent ire reign , and that of his son C harles.

[arnes was successful in ruling with out Parliamentbetween 1611 and 1621 , but it was on ly possiblebecause Britain remain ed at peace. [ames could notafford the cost of an army. In 1618, at th ebeginning of the Thirty Years War in Europe ,Parliament wished to go to war agains t theCatho lics. [arnes would not agree. Until his deathin 1625 [arues was always quarrelling withParliament over money and over its desire to play apart in his foreign policy.

C harles I found him self quarrelling even morebitterly with the Commons th an his fathe r haddone, mainl y over money. Finally he said ,"Parliaments are altogether in my power .. . As Ifind th e fruits of them good or evil, they are to

contin ue or not to be." Cha rles dissolvedParliament.

Charles's need for money, however, forced him torecall Parliament , but each time he did so , hequarre lled with it . When he tried raising mon eywith out Parl iament, by borrow ing from merchants,bank ers and land owning gen try, Parliamen t decidedto make Cha rles agree to certa in "par liamentary

right s" . It hoped C harles could not raise enoughmoney withou t its help, and in 1628 th is happened .In return for the money he badly needed, C harlespromised that he would on ly raise money by Act ofParliament , and that he would not imprison anyonewithout lawful reason.

These righ ts, know n as the Pet it ion of Right,established an important rule of govern ment byParliament , because the king had now agreed thatParliamen t controlled bo th state money, the"nationa l budget" , and the law. C ha rles realisedthat the Pet ition made nonsense of a king's "divineright ". He dec ided to prevent it bein g used bydissolving Parliament the following year.

Charles surprised everyone by bein g able to rulesuccessfully witho ut Parliament. He got rid of muchdishonesty that had begun in the Tu dor period andcontinued during h is fathe r's reign . He was able to

balance his budgets and make admin istrat ioneffic ient. C ha rles saw no reason to explain hispolicy or method of government to anyone. By1637 he was at the height of his power. Hisauthor ity seemed to be more completely acceptedthan the author ity of an English king had been forcenturies. It also seemed that Parl iament migh tnever meet again.

Religious disagreementIn 1637 , however, Cha rles began to make seriousmistakes. T hese resulted from the religious situa t ionin Brita in. His father, [ames, had been pleased tha tthe Anglican Church had bishops. T he y willinglysupported hi m as head of the English Ch urch . Andhe disliked the Presbyterian Kirk in Sco tlandbecause it had no bishops. It was a more democra ticinstitut ion and th is gave politica l as well as religiouspower to the literate classes in Sco tland. T hey hadgiven him a difficult time before he became king ofEngland in 1603.

There were also peop le in England, known asPuritans, who, like the Sco tt ish Presbyterians,wanted a democrat ic C hurch. Q ueen Elizabet h hadbeen careful to preve nt them from gaining power inthe Anglican C hurch. She even executed a few ofthem for print ing books against the bishops. In

13 Crown and Parliament

1604 , Puritan s met [ames to ask him to remove theAnglican bishops to make the English Ch urchmore like the Kirk, but he saw on ly danger for theCrown. "A Sco tt ish Presbvtery agrees as well withmonarchy as Go d with the Devil," he remar ked ,and sent them away with the words, "No bishop,no king."

C harles shared his fathe r's dislike of Pur itan s. Hehad married a French Catho lic, and the marriagewas unpopular in Protestant Britain. Man y MPswere either Puritans or sympat h ised with them , andmany of the wealth-creat ing classes were Puritan.But Charles took no notice of popular feeling, andhe appo inted an enemy of the Puritans , W illiamLaud , as Archbishop of Ca nterbury.

Archbishop Laud brough t back into the AnglicanC hurch many Ca tho lic practices. They wereextrem ely unpopular. Anti-Catho lic feeling hadbeen increased by an event over thirty years earlier,in 1605. A small group of Catho lics had beencaught trying to blow up the Houses of Parliamentwith King [arnes inside. O ne of these men, G uyFawkes, was captured in the cellar under theHouse. T he escape of king and Parliament caughtpeop le's imagination, and 5 November, theanniversary. became an occas ion for ce lebrationwith fireworks and bonfires.

Archb ishop Laud tr ied to make the Scott ish Kirkaccept the same organisat ion as the C hurch inEngland. [arnes I would have realised howdangerous this was, but his son , Cha rles, did notbecause he had on ly lived in Sco tland as an infant .W he n Laud tried to introduce the new prayer bookin Sco tland in 1637 the result was nationalresistance to the introduction of bishops and whatScots thought of as Catho licism .

In spring 1638 Cha rles faced a rebel Scottish army .W ithout the help of Parliamen t he was only able toput togethe r an inexpe rienced army. It marchednorth and found that th e Sco ts had crossed theborde r. Cha rles knew his army was un likely to winagainst the Scots. So he agreed to respect allSco ttis h polit ical and religious freedo ms, and alsoto pay a large sum of money to persuade the Scotsto return home.

89

A n Illustrated History of Britain

It was impossible for C ha rles to find th is moneyexcept through Parliament. T his gave it the chanceto end eleven years of absolute rule by Cha rles, andto force him to rule under par liamentary control. Inreturn for its help , Parliament made C harles accepta new law whic h stated that Parliament had tomeet at least once eve ry three years. However. asthe months went by, ir became increasingly clearthat Charles was not willing ro keep h is agreementswith Parliament. Ruling by "d ivine righ t" , C harlesfelt no need to accept its decisions.

Civil warEvents in Scotland made C harles dep end onParliament, but events in Ireland resulted in civilwar. [ames I had continued Elizabeth's policy andhad colon ised Ulster, the northern part of Ireland,

D ec ruroll ed byParliament

D controlled bythe king

,==,==' 00 km ~

The areas COf1tTOUed by Parliament and !he king halfwa'J lhTOugh !he CivilWa,. /642-1 645.

90

mainl y with farmers from the Scortish Lowlands.The Catho lic Irish were sent off the land, and eventhose who had worked for Protestant set tlers werenow rep laced by Protestant workers from Scotlandand England .

In 1641, at a momen t when Cha rles badly needed aperiod of quiet , Ireland exp loded in rebell ionagainst the Protestant English and Scottish settlers.As man y as 3,000 peop le, men, women and child­ren , were killed, most of them in Ulster. lnLondon , C harles and Parliament quarrelled overwho shou ld control an army to defeat the rebels.Many believed that C harles on ly wanted to raise anarmy in order to dissolve Parliament by force and to

rule alone again . C ha rles's friendsh ip towards theCatho lic Church increased Protestan t fears.Already some of the Irish rebels claimed to berebelling against the English Protestant Parliament,

Parliamenf met at: Wes!miruLeT in 1640, derermfned ro limit Charles 1'5freedom and tc ensure that Parliament would meet regularly in future.Because of rebeUiems in Sccdcnd and in Ireland, Charles had regil.'t' in to

Parliament's wish to oversee gOtltTTlment .

•

13 Crown and Parliament

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The banleof NaselJy in 1645 marked the final defeal of Charles I by Parliament. Charles can beseen in frontof hisanny. GeneralFairfaxcommanded the Parliamentarians . and his second-in-commend, OliverCromweU, commanded the right wing of the anny.

but not against the king. In 1642 Charles ttied toarrest five MPs in Parliament. Although he wasunsuccessful, it convinced Parliament and itssupporters all ove r England that they had goodreason to fear.

London locked its gates against the kin g, andCharles moved to Nottingha m, where he gathe redan army to defear rhose MPs who opposed h im.The Civil War had srarted. Most people, borh inthe country and in the towns, did not wish to be onone side or the orher. In fact, no more than 10 percent of the popu lation became involved. But mostof the House of Lords and a few from th e Commonssupported Charles. The Royalists, known as"Cavaliers" , controlled most of the north and west.But Parliament controlled East Anglia and thesoutheast , including London. Its army at firstconsisted of armed groups of London apprentices.Their short hair gave the Parliamentarian soldierstheir popul ar name of "Roundheads".

Unless the Royalists could win quickl y it wascertain that Parliament would win in the end.Parliament was supported by the navy , by most ofthe merchants and by the population of London. Ittherefore controlled the most important nationaland international sources of wealth . The Royalists,on the ot her hand, had no way of raising money.By 1645 the Royalist army was unpaid, and as aresult soldie rs either ran away, or sto le from localvillages and farms. In the end they lost theircourage for the fight against th e Parliamentarians,and at Naseby in 1645 the Royalist army was finallydefeated.

Most peop le were happy that the war had ended .Trade had been interrupted, and Parliament hadintroduced new taxes to pay for the war. In manyplaces peop le had to ld bot h armies to stay awayfrom their areas. They had had enough ofuncontrolled soldiers and of paying the cost of thewar.

91

14 Republican and Restoration BritainRepublican Britain . Catholicism, the Crown and the newconstitutional monarchy . Scotland and Ireland . Foreign relations

Republican BritainSevera l MPs had commanded the Parliamentarianarmy. Of these , the strongest was an East An gliangen tleman farmer named O liver Cromwell. He hadcreated a new "model " army, the first regular forcefrom which the British army of toda y dev eloped .Instead of country people or gentry, Cromwellinvit ed into h is arin y educated men who wanted to

fight for their beliefs.

C romwell and h is adv isers had cap tured the king in1645, but they did not know what to do with him .This was an entirely new situat ion in Englishhistory . C harles himself continued to encouragerebell ion against Parl iament even after he hadsurrendered and had been imprisoned. He was ableto encourage the Sco ts to rebel against theParliamentarian army. After the Scots weredefeated some Puri tan officers of theParliamentar ian army demanded the king's deathfor treason.

The Parliamentarian leaders now had a prob lem.T hey could either bring Charles back to the thro neand allow him to rule, or remove him and create anew political system. By th is tim e most peop le inbot h Houses of Parliament and probably in thecountry wanted the king back . T hey feared theParl iamentarian s and they feared the dan gerousbeh aviour of the army. But some army commanderswere determined to get rid of the king. These menwere Puritans who believed they could build God'skingdom in England .

Two-thirds of the MPs did not want to put the kingon trial. They were removed from Parl iament by

92

It is said th£u O/it/er Cromwell. «!ith Puritan humi/i()', told his /Xlinter,Samuel Cooper, 10 include the warts Oil hisface. BtH as well as humilit)'Cromwellalso had a soldiL>r's belief in aUlhorify. As a resulr he wasImpo{lItlar us Lord Protector . He failed 10pcrsw:u1e the English tha t

republican .l:0vemmenrwas better flum monarchy, mainly because peoplehadless freedom under hi!> authoritarian rule than they Md under Charles 1.

the army, and the remaining fifty-three judged himand found him guilty of making "war against hiskingdom and the Parliamen t". O n 31 Janu ary 1649King C harles was execut ed . It was a cold day andhe wore two shirts so that the crowd who came to

watch would not see him sh iver and think himfrighten ed.

King Cha rles died bravely. As his head was cutfrom his body the large crowd groaned. Perhaps theexecution was Charles's own greatest victory,because most peop le now realised that they did notwant Parliamentary rule , and were sorry thatCharles was not st ill king.

From 1649- 1660 Brita in was a republi c , but therepublic was not a success. Cromwell and hisfriends created a gove rnment far more severe thanCharles's had been. They had got rid of themonarch y, and they now got rid of th e House ofLords and the A nglican Ch urch.

The Scots were shocked by Cha rles's execution.They invited his son, whom they recognised asKing C harles 11 , to join th em and fight againstthe English Parliamentary army. But they weredefeated, and young C ha rles him self was lucky toescape to France. Sco rland was brought underEnglish republican rule.

Cromwell took an army to Ireland to puni sh theIrish for the kill ing of Protestants in 1641, and forthe con t inued Royalist rebellion there. He captu redtwo town s, Drogheda and Wexford. His soldierskilled the inhabitants of both , about 6,000 peoplein all. These killings were probably no worse thanthe killings of Protestants in 1641, but theyremained powerful symbols of English cruelty to th eIrish.

The army remain ed th e most powerful force in th eland. Disagreements bet ween the army andParliament result ed in Parliament's dissolution in1653 . It was the behaviour of the army and thedissolut ion of Parl iamen t that destroyed C romwell'shopes. Man y in the army held what were thoughtto be stra nge beliefs. A group called "Levellers"wanted a new equality among all men . Theywanted Parliament to meet every two years, and formost men over the age of twen ty-one to have theright to elect MPs to it. They also wanted completerel igious freedom, which would have allowed themany new Puritan groups to follow their religion inthe way they wished.

14 Republican and Restoration Britain

Two hundred years later, such demands werethought of as basic citizens' rights. But in themiddle of the seventeenth century they had littlepopular support. Levellers in the army rebelled, buttheir rebellion was defeated.

From 1653 Britain was governed by Cromwellalone. He became "Lord Protector", with fargrearer powers than King Charles had had. Hisefforts to govern the country through the army wereextremely unp opular, and the idea of using thearmy to maintain law and order in the kingdom hasremained unp opular ever since. Cromwell'sgovernment was unpopular for other reasons. Forexample, people were forbidden to celeb rateChristmas and Easte r, or to play games on aSunday.

When Cromwell died in 1658, the Protectorate, ashis republ ican admin istration was called, collapsed.Cromwell had hoped that his son , rather thanParliament , would take over when he died . ButRichard Cromwell was not a good leader and thearmy commande rs soon started to quarre l amongthe mselves . O ne of these decided to act. In 1660he marched to London, arranged for free electionsand invited Charles 11 to return to h is kingdom.The republi c was over.

When Cha rles 11 returned to England as thepublicl y accepted king, th e laws and Acts ofC romwell's gove rnment were auto maticallycance lled.

Cha rles managed his return with skill. Altho ughParliament was once more as weak as it had been inthe time of [ames I and Charles I, the new king wascareful to make peace with his father's enemies.O n ly those who had been responsible for hisfath er's exec utio n were pun ished. Man yParliamen tarians were given position s of authorityor responsibility in the new mon arch y. ButParliament itself remain ed gene rally weak. C harlessha red his father's bel ief in divine right. And hegreatl y admired th e magnificent , all-powe rful,absolute ruler of France , Louis XIV.

93

An Illustrated History of Britain

Charles Il, who' 'never said a foolish thing, noreverdida wiseone, " was awelcome change from CromweUian rule. Charles Il believed as strongly ashisfather andgrandfather in the divine right of kings, but Iuu:I. the good senseto atlOid an openbreak with Parliament. His reign wascarefree andrelaxed,as this portrait suggests. quite different from the mood suggested in VanDyck's portrait of his father (page 86).

Catholicism, the Crown and thenew constitutional monarchyCha rles hoped to make peace between th e differen treligious groups. He wanted to allow Puritans andCatho lics who disliked the Anglican Ch urch to

94

meet freely. But Parliament was strongly Anglican,and would not allow this . Before the C ivil Wa r,Puritans looked to Parliament for prorection against

. the king. Now th ey hoped that the king wouldprotect them against Parl iament.

Cha rles himself was attracted to the CatholicChurch. Parliament knew thi s and was alwaysafraid that C harles would become a Catho lic. Forth is reason Parliament passed the Test Act in 1673,wh ich prevented any Catho lic from holding publicoffice. Fear of Charles's inte rest in th e Catho licC hurch and of the monarchy beco ming toopowerful also resulted in the fi rst polit ical part ies inBritain.

O ne of these parties was a group of MPs whobecame known as "Whigs", a rude name for cattledrivers. T he Whigs were afraid of an absolutemonarch y, and of the Catho lic faith with whichth ey connec ted it . T hey also wanted to have noregular or "standing" army. In spite of th eir fear of aCatho lic king, th e Whigs believed strongly inallowing religious freedom. Because C harles and hiswife had no ch ildren, the W higs feared that theCrown would go to Cha rles's Catho lic brothe r,[arnes. They wanted to preve nt th is, but they wereundecided ove r who they did want as king.

T he W higs were opposed by anothe r group,n icknamed "Tories", an Irish name for thi eves. It isdifficult to give a simple definition of eac h party,because they were loosely formed groups. Generallyspeaking, however, the Tories uphe ld the aut hori tyof the Crown and the Churc h, and were na turalinheri tors of the "Roya list" position. The Whigswere not against the Crown, but they believed thatits authority deperided upon the consent ofParliament. As na tura l inheritors of the"Parliamentarian " values of twenty years earlier,they felt to lerant towards the new Protestant sectswhich the Anglican Church so disliked. T hese twopart ies, the W higs and the Tories, became the basisof Britain 's two-party parliamentary system ofgove rnment.

T he struggle over Catho licism and the Crownbecame a crisis whe n news was heard of a Catho licplot to murder C harles and put his brothe r [ames

on the th ron e. In fact the plan did not exist. Thestory had been spread as a clever trick to frigh tenpeople and to make sure that [arnes and rheCatho lics did not come to power. The trickworked. Parliament passed an Acr forbidding anyCatho lic to be a member of either the Commons orthe Lords. It was not successful, however , inpreventing lames from inheriting the cro wn.Cha rles would not allow any interference with hisbrother's div ine right to be king. Swam might givein on matters of policy I but never on matters ofprinc iple.

[arnes 1I became king afte r his brother 's death in1685. T he Tories and Anglicans were delighted ,but not for long. l ames had already shown hisdislike of Protestants while he had been Charles'sgovernor in Sco tla nd. His soldiers had killed man yPresbyterian men, women and children . T hisperiod is st ill remembered in some parts of Scotlandas the "killing t imes".

James then tried to remove the laws whic h stoppedCatholics from taking positio ns in gove rnment andParliamen t. He also tr ied to bring back theCatholic C hurch , and allow it to exist beside theAnglican C hurch. [ arnes almost certainly believedsincerely that this wou ld result in many returning tothe Catho lic C hurch. But Parliament was veryangry, particularly the Tories and Anglicans whohad supported him against the Whigs.

[arnes tried to get rid of the Tory gentry who moststrongly oppose d h im. He removed three-quart ers ofall jPs and replaced the m with men of lower socialclass. He tried to bring together the Catholics andthe Puritans, now usually ca lled "Nonconformists"because they would not agree with or "conform" to

the Anglican C hurch.

In spite of thei r anger, Tories, Whigs andAnglican s did nothing because they could lookforward to the succession of [arnes's daughter,Mary. Marv was Protestant and married to theProtestant ruler of Holland, W illiam of Orange.But thi s hope was destroyed with the news in June1688 th at l ames's son had been born. The Toriesand Anglican s now joined the Whigs in looking fora Protestant rescue.

14 Republican and Restoration Britain

They invited William of Orange to invade Brita in.It was a dangerous thing for Willi am to do, but hewas already at war with France and he needed thehelp of Britain' s wealth and armed forces. At th isimportant moment [arnes's determination failedhim. It seems he act ually had some kind of mentalbreakdown.

Willi am entered London, but the crown was offeredonly to Mary. William said he would leave Brita inunless he also became king. Parliament had nochoice bur to offer the crown to both W illiam andMarv,

However, while Will iam had obta ined the crown,Parliament had also won an important point. Afterhe had fl ed from England , Parliament had decidedthat [ arues 1I had lost his right to th e crown. Itgave as its reason that he had tried to undermine"the const itution of the kingdom by breaking theoriginal contract between King and Peop le." T h isidea of a contract between ruler and ruled was notentirely new. Since the restoration of C harles 1I in1660 there had been a number of theor ies about thenature of government. In the 1680s two of themore important theorists, A lgernon Sidney andJoh n Locke , had argued that government was basedupon the consent of the people, and that thepowers of the king must be strictly limi ted. Thelogical conclusion of such ideas was th at the"consent of the peop le" was represented byParliament, and as a result Parliamen t, not theking, should be the ove rall power in the sta te. In1688 these theories were fulfi lled.

Like th e C ivil W ar of 1642, th e G loriousRevolution, as the political results of the events of1688 were called , was complete ly unpl anned andunprepared for . It was hardl y a revolution , more acoup cl 'ewt by the ruling class. But the fact thatParliament made William king, not by inheritan cebut by their choice , was revolution ary. Parliamentwas now beyond question more powerful than theking, and would remain so. Its power over themonarch was written into the Bill of Rights in1689. The king was now unable to raise taxes orkeep an army without the agreement of Parliament,or to act against any MP for what he said or did inParliament.

A n Illustrated History of Britain

In 1701 Parliament finally passed rhe Acr ofSettlement, to make sure on ly a Protestant couldinherit the crown. It stated tha t if Mary had noch ildren th e crown would pass to her sister Anne. Ifshe also died without ch ildren , it would go to agranddaughter of l ames I, who had married th eGe rman elector of Hanover, and her ch ildren . TheAct of Settlement was importa nt, and ha s remainedin force ever since, altho ugh the Stuarts tried threet imes to regain the crown. Even today , if a son ordaughter of the monarch beco mes a Catho lic, he orshe cannot inherit the thron e.

Scotland and IrelandNe ithe r Sco tland,nor Ireland accepted the Englishremoval of lames peacefully. In Sco tland supportersof the St uarrs rebe lled, but although theysuccessfully defeated a government army, theirrebellion ended afte r the death of their leader. Mostof the rebels were H igh landers, many of them stillCatho lic.

Sco tland was still a separate kingdom , although itshared a king with England (James 11 had beenl ames VII of Sco tland). T he English wantedSco tland and England to be united. But the EnglishAc t of Settleme nt was not law in Sco tland. WhileSco tland remained legally free to choose its ownkin g there was a danger that this might be used toput a St uarr back on the throne. Sco tland mightrenew its Auld A lliance with France, which wasnow England's most dange rous European ene my.

Onthe othe r hand , Sco tland needed to remove thelimits on trade with England from which it sufferedecono mically. The English Parliament offered toremo ve th ese limits if the Scots agreed to unionwith England. The Scots knew th at if they did notagree there was a real danger tha t an English armywould once again march int o Sco tland. In 1707 theunion of Sco tland and England was com pleted byAc t of Parliament. From that momen t bothcoun tries no longer had separate parliaments, and anew parliament of Great Britain, the new nam e ofthe sta te, met for the first tim e. Sco tland, however,kept its own separate legal and judicial system, andits own separate C hurch.

96

"No surrender", themotto of theLondonderry Protestants undersiege in 1690 by the CatholicIrish, has remained the mono ofthe Ulster Protestants to this day.This Protestant hmne displays thecrossed flags of the UnionofGreat Britain and NorthernIrelandandof Ulster.

In Ireland the Catho licism of [ames H had raisedthe hopes of those who had lost their lands to theProtestant set tle rs. When he lost his throne inEngland , James naturally thought that Irelandwould make a stro ng base from which to take backhis throne. In 1689 he land ed in Ireland, withFrench support .

In Dublin a Catho lic parliament immedi atel ypassed an Act taking away all the property ofProtestan ts in Ireland. But it was not so easy tocarry thi s out. Thirty thousand Protestants lockedthemselves in the city of Lond onderry (or "Derrv"as the Catho lics continued to call it) . [arnesencircled the city but the defenders refused tosurrender. After fifteen weeks, English sh ips arrivedbringing fresh supplies and the struggle forLondonderry was over. The bat tlecry of theProtestants of Londonderry "No Surrender!" ha sremained to th is day the cry of U lsterProtestanti sm .

King Wi lliam landed in Ireland in 1690, anddefeated [ arnes's army at the River Boyne. [arnesleft Ireland for France a few days later, and neverreturned to any of his kingdoms . W ith th e bat tle ofthe Boyne the Protestant victory was complete .

Foreign relationsDuring the seven teenth century Britain' s mainenemies were Spain , Holland and France. War withHolland resulted from competit ion in trade. Aft erthree wars in the middle of the century, whenBritain had ach ieved the trade posit ion it wanted,peace was agreed , and Holland and Britain co­operated aga inst France.

At the end of the cen tury Britain went to waragainst France. This was partly because Willi am ofOrange brough t Britain into the Dutch strugglewith the Fren ch . Bur Brita in also wanted to limitFrench power , which had been growing under LouisXIV. Under the duke of Marlborough, the Briti sharmy won several important victories over theFrench at Blenheim (on the Danube), Ramillies,Oudenarde and Malplaquet (in the Netherlands) .

14 Republican and Restoration Britain

By the treat y of Utrecht in 1713 France acceptedlimits on its expansion, as well as a politicalsettlement for Europe. It accepted Queen Anneinstead of [ames Il' s son as th e true monarch ofBritain . In the war Britain had also won the rock ofG ibraltar, and could now control the entrance tothe Medit erranean .

The capture of foreign land was important forEurope 's econo mic development. At thi s stageBtitain had a smaller empire abroad than eithe rSpain or Holland . But it had greater variety. O nthe east coast of America , Britain cont rolled abouttwelve colon ies. Of far greate r int erest were thenew possessions in the West Indies, where sugarwas grown . Sugar became a craze from whichBritain has not yet recovered .

The growing sugar econom y of the We st Indiesincreased the demand for slaves. By 1645, forexample, the re were 40,000 white settlers and6,000 negro slaves in Barbados. By 1685 thebalance had cha nged , with only 20,000 whitesettlers but 46,000 slaves. T he sugar importers usedthe ir great influence to make sure that thegovernment did not stop slavery.

During th is t ime Britain also established its firsttrad ing settlements in India, on both the west andeast coasts. The East India Company did notinterfere in Indian politics. Its interest was on ly intrade. A hundred years later, however, compet itionwith France resulted in direct efforts to controlIndian polit ics, either by alliance or by theconquest of Indian princely sta tes.

97

15 Life and thoughtThe revolution in thought · Life and work in the Stuart age· Familylife

T he politica l revo lut ion during the St uart age couldnot have happened if the re had not been arevo lut ion in thought. This influen ced not on lypolit ics, but also religion and science. By 1714peop le's ideas and beliefs had changed enormously.T he real Protestant revolution did no t, in fact,happen until the seventeenth century, when severalnew religious groups appeared. But there were alsoex cit ing new scientific ideas, quite separate fromthese new beliefs. For the first tim e it wasreasonable to argue that everyth ing in the uni versehad a natural exp lana t ion , and thi s led to a newself-confidence.

Another reason for th is self-con fidence was thechange in Britain 's int ernat ional position duringthe century. In 1603, in spite of the Arm adavictory of 1588 and in spite of the union of Englandand Sco tland under one sovereign , Britain was stillconsidered less important than France, Spain andthe Holy Roman Empire. But by 1714 the successof its armies against Franc e had made Britain aleading European power. At the same time Britainhad so man y new colon ies that it was now incompetit ion with earlier co lonial nation s, Spain,Portugal and the Ne therlands.

The revolution in thoughtThe influence of Puritanism increased greatl yduring the seventeenth century, particularly amongthe merchant class and lesser gentry. It was thePuritans who persuaded James I to permit a newofficial ("authorised") translation of the Bible. Itwas published in 1611. This beautiful transl ation

98

A Quaker meeting addressed bya WOl1UIn. Qunkers had. a numberof strikingideas, farexample, ,ha, all men andwomen were equal. The Quakermovement began during the Civil War, andin 1661 iradopted rhe "peaceprinciple", the idea that allwar was wrong. Since thenQuakers have beenpacifist.

was a great work of English literature, and itencouraged Bible reading among all those whocould read. Although the Bible was read most bymerchants and lesser gentry, man y literate labourersbegan to read it too . Some of them understood theBible in a new and revolutionary way. As a result ,by the middle years of the seventeen th centuryPuritanism had led to the formation of a largenumber of small new religious groups, or "sects",including the "Levellers".

Most of these No nconformist sects lasted only a fewyears, but two are important, the Bapt ists and theQuakers, In spite of opposit ion in the seventeent hcentury, both sects have surv ived and have had animportant effect on the life of the nation. TheQuakers became part icularly famous for theirreforming social work in the eighteenth cen tury.These sects brought hope ro many of the poor andthe powerless. Social reform and the later growth oftrade unionism both owed much toNonconformism. In spite of the ir good work,however, the Nonconformists continued to bedisliked by the ruling class until th e end of thenine tee nth cen tury.

The Anglican C hurch, unlike the Nonconformistchurches, was strong politically, but it becameweaker intellectually. T he great religious write rs ofthe period, Joh n Bunyan, who wrote The Pilgrim'sProgress , and John Milton, who wrote Paradise Lost,were both Puritan.

For some Nonconformists, the opposit ion to th eirbeliefs was too great to bear. They left Britain tolive a free life in the new found land of America. In1620, the " Pilgrim Fat hers" sailed in a sh ip calledthe Mayflower to Massachusetts. Catholic familiessettled in Maryland for the same reasons. But mostof the 400,000 or so who left England were youngmen with out fami lies, who did so for economic andnot religious reasons. They wanted the chance tostart a new life. At the same time the re were otherpeople coming in from abroad to live in Britain.Cromwell allowed Jews to settle again, the first Jewssince th e earlier community had been expelled 350years earlier. And after 1685 many FrenchProtesta nts, known as Huguenots, escaped fromLouis XIV's persecuti on and settled in Britain.

The revolut ion in religious thinking was happeningat the same rime as a revol ution in scientificthinking. Careful study of the na tural world led toimportant ne w discoveries.

It was not the first t ime that the peop le of Britainhad taken a lead in scientific matt ers. Al most athousand years earlier, the English mon k andhistorian, Bede, had argued that the earth stoodstill, fi xed in space, and was surrounded by seven

15 Life and thought

heaven s. This. of co urse, was not correct , but noone doubted him for centuries. In the twelfthcentury, during th e reign of Henry I, anot he rEnglish scientist had gained European fame. He wasAdelard of Bath , and he played a large part in therevolut ion in scientific think ing at the t ime. Heknew that the Church considered h is ideasdangerous. II Ido not want to cla im." he wrote,"t ha t God is less than all-powerful. But nature hasits own patterns and order, and we should listen tothose who have learn t someth ing of it. "

In the th irtee nth and early fourteent h centuriesEnglish scientists, most of them at the University ofOx ford, had led Europe. Friar Roger Bacon, one ofthe more famous of them, had experimented withlight , heat and magnetism. Anot her, Wi lliam ofOc kham, had studied falling ob jects. Another,Wi lliam Marlee, had been one of th e first to keep acareful record of the weather. C haucer h imselfwrote a book to teach h is son how to use anastro labe. At the same time, the pract ical effects ofsuch curiosity were seen in new machinery, watermills, geared wheels and lathes.

But th e seventeenth century saw the developmentof scientific thin king on an entirely new scale. T henew mood had been established at the verybeginning of the century by a remarkable man ,Francis Bacon. He became James I's LordC hance llor, but he was bette r known for his workon scientifi c met hod. Every scientific idea , heargued , must be tested by expe riment. W ith ideaand experiment followin g one after the other,eventually the whole natural world would beunderstood. In the rest of the centu ry Brit ishscientists put these ideas into pract ice. The Britishhave remained at the front of expe riment andresearch ever since.

In 1628 Wi lliam Harvey discovered the circu latio nof blood and th is led to great adva nces inmedicine and in the study of the hum an body. T hescientists Robert Bovle and Robert Hooke usedHarvey's methods when they made discoveries inthe chemistry and mechanics of breath ing.

These scientific stud ies were encouraged by theSruarts, The Royal Soc iety, founded by the Stuart

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monarchy , became an important centre wherethinkers could meet. argue, enquire and shareinformation. C ha rles Il, a strong supporter of itswork . gave the Royal Soc iety firm direction "toexamine all systems. theories, princ iples . . .ele ments, histories and experiments of thin gsnatural, mathematical and mechanical".

In 1666 the Ca mbridge Professor of Mathemati cs.Sir Isaac New ton, began to study gravity,publish ing his important discovery in 1684 . In 1687he published Principia . on "the mathematic alprinc iples of natural philosoph y", perhaps thegreatest book in the history of science . Newton 'swork remained the basis of physics until Einstein'sdiscoveries in the twentieth century. N ewton' simportan ce as a "founding father" of modernscience was recognised in his own time, andAlexander Pope, a leading poet of the day. summedit up neatl y:

_ _ 0-1":'.(M£R :4..'f Sn:U, ATA.' I . ~

The RoyalObservatory at Greenwich was fouruled by Charles H. who had agreat interest in scientific meners . On the left a quadrant is being used, largerbut similar to thoseusedfor navigation on ocean,goingships. On the right anextremely longtelescope is being used to observe the heavenly bodies.

lOO

Na ture, and Nature's laws lay hid in night:God said . Let Newton be! and all was light.

New ton had been encouraged and financed by hisfriend . Edmund Halley, who is mostly rememberedfor tracking a comet (H allev's Co met ) in 1682.There was at that t ime a great deal of interest inastronomy. T he discovery of the geometricmovement of sta rs and planet s destroyed old beliefsin astrology and magic. Everything. it seemed, hada natural exp lanation.

It was no acc ident that th e greatest British architectof the tim e. Chrisrophe r Wren , was also Professorof Astronomy at Ox ford. In 1666. following a yearof terribl e plague. a fire destroyed most of the cityof Lond on . Eighty-seven churches . including thegreat medieval cat hedral of St Paul , were destroyed.Wr en was ordered to rebuild them in the modernstyle. which he did with skill.

15 Life and thought

When London was re/milt, a new law made sure that all buildings were madeofbrickor stone. The jewel of the new city was the new cathedral, designedby Sir Chriswpher Wren. Almost every chuTch in the new city was alsodesigned by Wren, or by his (lble assistant, NichoklS Hawksmoor. Althoughsome buildings were pul/cddoum and others builtduring the next 250 years,lhe city only dumged significantly in the rebuilding lhat followed the SecondWorldWar.

As a result of the rap id spread of literacy and theimproveme nt in printing techn iques, the firstnewspapers appeared in the seventee nth century.They were a new way of spreading all kinds ofideas, scientific, religious and literary. Many ofthem included advertisements. In 1660 C harles IIadvertised for his lost dog.

Life and work in the Stuart ageThe situat ion for the poor improved in the secondhalf of the seventeenth century. Prices fellcompared with wages, and fewer peop le asked forhelp from the parish . But it was the middle groupswho continued to do well. Many who started life as

yeoman farmers or traders became minor gentry ormerchan ts. Part of their success resulted from astrong interest in farming improvements, whichcould now be studied in the many new books onthe subject.

By the middle of the cen tury th e gove rnment hadalready begun to contro l the trade in cereals to

make sure that merchants did not export thesewhil e Brita in still needed the m. However , by 1670Brit ain was able to export cereals to Europe, whereliving condit ions, particularly for the poor, weremuch worse than in Britain . This was partly theresult of the T h irty Years W ar, 16 18- 48, wh ichhad badly damaged European agriculture.

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A n Illust rated History of Britain

102

"The Tichbome Dole", a late setJenteenth,centurypicture, showsaHampshirelandowner, his family, servantsand farm tenants. It shows theway in which dress differed according to class and occupation. One of theservantson the left is black, while {here is a QUllker woman (holding a baby)among thefarming people on the right.

15 Life and thought

Trade with in Britain itself changed enormously inthe seventeen th century. The different regionsbecame less economically separate from each other.No place in Britain was more tha n seven ty-fivemiles from the sea, and by 1690 few places weremore than twenty miles from a river or canal.These waterways became important means oftransport, allowing each region to develop its ownspecial produce. Kent , for example, grew more fruitand vegetables to export to other regions, andbecame known as "t he garden of England" .

Improved transport result ed in a change in buyingand selling. Most town s did not have shops beforethe seventeenth century. T he y had market dayswhen farmers and manufacturers sold their producein the town square or market place. By 1690,however, most towns also had proper shops.Shopkeepers travelled arou nd rhe coun try to buygoods for their shops, which were new and excitingand drew people from the country to see the m.Towns which had shops grew larger, wh ile smallertowns without shops remained no more thanvillages.

London remained far larger tha n any other town,with more than 500 ,000 people by 1650. Itcontrolled almost all the sea trade with othercountries. T he next largest cit ies, Norwich,Newcastle an d Bristol, had on ly 25,000 each .(Londo n's great plague of 1665 killed 68 ,000 peo plein only six months, almost equal to th e totalpopulat ion of these three cities. ) Aft er the fire of1666, the rich er citizens for the first time had wate rsupplied to the ir houses, through spec ially madewooden pipes. T he city streets had traffic jams justas bad as today's, and the noise was proba bly farworse, with th e sound of iron -tvred whe els and th ehammering of craftsmen.

In Lond on th ere was a new class of rich"aristocrats"I most of whom belonged to thenobility, but not all. Money could buy a highposition in British society more easily than inEurope. After 1650 the rich began to meet in thenew coffeehouses, wh ich quickly became themeeting places for conversation and politics.

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Coffeeholtsesbecame vel)' popular er the l.'nd of rhe sevenreemh cemltry,anJ remained so for much of the eighreenth century. \Vhile coffeehouseswere visiredonl)' by men, rheir wives incremingl)' held rell/xlnies«r home.Tea drinkiTl,f(, and rhe specialurensils necessary for rhis, became VCT)' {)l.JplJ!aramong rhe wealrhy. Ar fint rea was made in silver reapHIS and was drunkfrom bowls wirholll handles. In the secondhalfof rhe cell(llrychirUl potsreplaced silver ones, and teacups replaced bowb. These fl.'acups sttr insaucers, rhe linle dishes rhar were nonnallyused {crr holding smzces.

Some of the old nob ility, however , did no t accep tth e new rich as equals. While new Sruarr yeomenwanted to be gen rrv, desce ndant s of the olderT udor gentry started to call themselves "squires",the ruling class of the countryside. They did notwish to be confused with the new gentry.

T he squires and JPs gove rned locally duringCromwell's Protectorate , and continued to do soafterwards. They had the power to tax for localpurposes, to call out so ldiers and to try mostcriminals. T hey had the same interests as thegovern ment, and were therefore usually willing to

104

pay taxes. As one gentleman said in 1625, "wemust not give an example of disobedien ce to thosebeneath us".

W hile the rich of London visited the coffeehouses,the ordinary people went to the drinking houses,called "alehouses", in town and country. Th esesoon became the centre of pop ular culture, wherenews and ideas could be passed on. By th e end ofthe century the government had secret informerswatch ing the aleho uses and listeni ng for rebellioustalk.

Family lifeAfter the rapid increase in populat ion in the T udorcentury, th e number of births began to fall in theStuart age. In 1600 Britain and Ireland had a to talpopulat ion of 6 million . A ltho ugh it increased to

7.7 million by 1650 , th e rate th en sta rte d to fall.No one is quite sure why the populati on either roseso rapidl y in the T udor age. or stead ied during theseventeenth ce ntury.

One reason for the sma ller number of births wasthat people marri ed later tha n anywhe re else inEurope. Most people marri ed in their mid twenties,and by th e end of the ce nt ury the ave rage age offirst marriages was eve n o lder, at twent y-seven .This. of co urse. meant tha t women had fewerbabies. So me women tried to control the size oftheir families by breast-feed ing bab ies for as long aspossible. It a lso seems that more men remainedunmarried than before. But th e pattern ofpopulat ion growth and human beh aviour remainspuzzling . A study of south Wales, for example,shows that one in three of all heads of gentryfamilies remained unmarri ed at th e end of th eseventeen th cen tu ry. A ce nt ury ear lier. hardl y anyheads of gentry fam ilies in th e area had rem ain edunmarried. There is uncertainty as to why th isshould have been.

Bythe end of the sixtee nth ce ntury there werealready signs that the autho rity of the husband wasincreasing. Th is resulted from the weaken ing ofwider family ties. Furthermore, just as th e power ofthe monarch beca me more abso lute during thesixteenth and early seventeenth centuries , so alsodid th at of th e hu sband and fathe r. But whil e thepower of the monarchy was brought under control.the autho rity of the head of the family co ntinued to

grow.

This power partly resulted from the increasingautho rity of the C hurch following th e Reformati on .The Protestant s believed th at personal faith wasimporta nt, and put extra respons ibilit y on the he adof the family for its spiritua l welfare . The fathe ralways led da ily family prayers and Bible readi ng. Insome ways he had taken the place of the priest. A sa result . hi s wife and children belonged to him,

15 Lire and thought

mind , body and soul. Abso lute obedience wasexpected. Disobedience was cons idered an ac taga inst God as well as the head of the house.

O ne result of th is increase in the fathe r's autho ritywas that from the ea rly seve nteent h centurych ildren were frequently bea te n to break th eir"s inful" will. T he child who was no t beaten wasunusual. Wi lliam Perm, the Quaker who foundedth e co lony of Pennsylvani a in north A me rica .adv ised parents to " love them [th eir ch ild ren] withwisdom, correct them with affection. never strikein passion. and suit the corrections to their ages aswell as their fault." It is un likely his adv ice wasaccepted excep t among th e Q uaker sect, whichrejected all violenc e. Anot her resul t was the loss oflegal righ ts by women over whatever pro perty theyhad brou ght into a marri age.

However , the Protestant religion also gave newimport an ce to the indi vidual, especially inPresbyterian Sco tland. Man y Sco tt ish women werenot afra id to stand up to both th eir hu sbands andthe gove rn ment on matters of persona l belief. Infact man y of th ose who chose to die for the ir beliefsduring Scotla nd 's "killing times" were wome n. Thisself-co nfidence was almost ce rta in ly a result ofgrea te r educat ion and religious de mocracy inScotla nd at th is t ime.

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The eighteenth century16 The political world

Politics and finance' W ilkes and liberty · Radicalism and the loss ofthe American colonies' Ireland ' Scotland

Well before the end of the eighteenth centuryBritain was as powerful as France . This resultedfrom the growth of irs industries and from thewealth of its large new trading empire, part ofwhich had been cap tured from th e French. Britainnow had the stro ngest navy in the world ; the navycontrolled Britain 's own trade rout es andendangered those of its en emies. It was thedeliberate policy of the govern ment to create th istrading empire, and to protect it wit h a stron gnavy. T his was made possible by the way in whichgovernment had developed during the eighteenthcentury.

For the first tim e , it was the king's ministers whowere the real policy and decision -makers. Powernow belonged to the groups from which theministers came , and the ir supporters in Parliament.These mini sters ruled ove r a country which hadbecome wealt hy through trade. T his wealth , or"capita l", made possible both an agricultura l and anindustrial revolu tion which made Britain the mostadvanced econom y in the world.

However, there was an en ormous price to pay,because while a few people became richer, manyothers lost their land , their homes and th eir way ofHie. Families were driven off the land in anotherperiod of enclosures. T hey became the working

The POTI of Bristol in [he eighteenth cenno-y. lnfLTIW rimUll traJ('became thebasis of Britain's rise 10uUTldgreatness JuTing {he ceunsry. Britain fuul {hebt?$! ships andalso the guns to force ir.s uiU",here trade alone did nOfsucceed. Brutalbecame the second largest city after London early in lhecmfury, based on the rrianguwr [rad.: : Bri!ish·Jll<!Je goods ID ~'es[ Afrka.\t'esr African sla t'eS re me Neu: WOTId, andNeu' World sugar, oxron andmco to Britain.

"p roletar iat" of the cities that made Britain's tradeand industrial emp ire of the n ineteenth centurypossible. The invention of machinery destroyed theold "co ttage industr ies" and creat ed factor ies. T hedevelopment of industry led to th e sudden growthof cit ies like Birmingham, G lasgow, Manchesterand Liverpool and other centres in the northMidlands.

None of this could have happened without greatdange r to the established orde r. In France themisery of the poor and the power of the trad ingclasses led to revolution in 1789. The Briti shgovernment was afraid of dangerous revolutionaryideas spreading from Franc e to the discontented inBritain . In fact , Britain ended the century fightingagainst the great French leader, NapoleonBonaparte, and eventually defeating h im. In thisway, perhaps, many who might have beendiscontented were more conce rned with th e defeatof Napoleon. Revolution was st ill a possibility, butBrita in was saved partly by the high level of localcontrol of the ruling class in the cou ntrys ide andpartly by Merhodism, a new religious movementwhich offered hope and self-respect to the newproletariat . Methodism was careful to deal on lywith heaven ly matters. It did not quest ion polit icalor social injustices on earth.

Politics and financeW hen Queen Anne , the last of the St uarts, died in1714, it was not entirely cert ain that the Protes tantruler of Hanover, George, would become king.There were some Tories who wanted the deposed

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james ll's son to ret urn to Britain as james Ill. If hehad given up Catholicism and accepte d theAnglican religion he probably would have beencrowned james Ill. But like other members of hisfamily, james was unwi lling to change his mind,and he would not give up his religion . Nor wouldhe give up his claim to the thro ne, so he tr ied to

win it by force.

In 1715 he sta rted a rebeilion against George I,who had by th is time arrived from Hanover. Butth e rebellion was a disaster , and George's army hadlittle difficul ty in defeating the English and Sco tt ish"[acobites" , as Stuart supporters were known .Because of the Tory connec tion with the [ acobires,King George allowed the W higs to form hisgovernment.

Government power was increased because the newking spoke on ly German , and did not seem veryinterested in his new kingdom . Among the king'sministers was Rob~rt Wa lpole, who remain ed thegreatest political leader for ove r twenty years. He isconsidered Britain's first Prime Min ister.

Walpole came to power as a result of his financialability. At the end of the seventeent h century thegovernment had been forced to borrow money inorder to pay for the war with France . There wasnothi ng new about th is, except that because of thewar the governme nt 's borrowing increasedenormously. In 1694 , a group of financiers who lentto the government decided to establish a bank , andthe government agreed to borrow from it alone .The new bank, ca lled th e Bank of England , hadaut hor ity to raise money by printing "bank notes".Th is was not an entirely new idea. For hundreds ofyears bank ers and money dealers had been able togive peop le "promisory notes" signed bythe mselves. T hese could be handed on as paymentto a third or fourth person . Th is way of makingtrade easier had been made lawful duri ng the reignof Henry I, six hundred years earlier. The chequeswe use today devel oped from these promisory notes.

At a tim e when many people had money to invest ,there was popular interest in financial matters.Peop le wanted to invesr money in some of thetrading companies doing business in the West

108

lndies, the East lndies or in other newly developingareas. The possibility of high profits, and theexc itemen t thi s possibilit y caused, made the cost ofa share in these trading adventures expensive. In1720 the South Sea Company offered to pay off thegovern ment's nat ional deb t if it was givenmonopoly rights to tradi ng in the Sout h Seas. Itraised mone y by selling shares wh ich qu ickly rose invalue with the increasing exc itement . W henpeop le's con fidence in the South Sea Companysuddenly fell, so did the price of shares, andthousands of peop le who had invested their moneylost' everyth ing. Robert Wa lpole was able to bringback public confidence. He made sure thatsomething like the "South Sea Bubble" could nothappen again. Th is was the first step in makingcompan ies responsible to the public for the moneywhich they borrow ed by the sale of sha res.

In the other countr ies of Europe kings and queenshad absolute power. Britain was unusual , an dWa lpole was determ ined to keep the C rown underth e firm control of Parliamen t. He knew that withthe new Ge rman monarchy th is was more possiblethan it had been before.

Walpole skilfully developed the idea thatgove rnment min isters sho uld work togethe r in asmall group, wh ich was ca lled the "Cabine t". Heint roduced the idea tha t any min ister who disagreeddeeply with other Cabine t ministers was expectedto resign. From thi s basic idea grew anotherimpor tant rule in British politics: that all membersof the C abinet were together responsible for policydecisions. Wa lpole buil t on the polit ical results ofthe G lorious Revolut ion of 1688. It was he whomade sure th at the power of the king would alwaysbe limi ted by the const itut ion.

The limits to monarchy were these: the king couldnot be a C atho lic; the king could not remove orcha nge laws; the king was dependent on Parl iamentfor his financial incom e and for his army. The kingwas supposed to "choo se" his ministers. Even todaythe gove rnment of Britain is "He r Majesty'sGo vernment". But in fact the mini sters belonged asmuch to Parliament as they did to th e king.

Walpole wanted to avo id war and to increase taxesso that the government could pay back everythingit had borrowed, and get rid of the nat ional deb t.He put taxes on luxury goods, such as tea, coffeeand chocolate, all of which were drunk by the rich ,and were brought to Britain from its new colon iesby wealt hy trade rs. Te a had become a nation aldrink by 1700, when 50 ,000 kg were already beingimport ed each year. Wa lpole raised thegovernment 's income, but thi s had little effect onthe national debt , and he became very unpopular.

The most importan t of Walpole's polit ical enemieswas W illiam Pitt " the Elder", lat er Lord C hatha m,Charham wanted Britain to be eco nomically strongin the world, and he agreed with Daniel Defoe , theauthor of Robinson Crusoe, who had written in1728, "Trade is the wealth of the world . T rademakes the difference between rich and poor,between one nat ion and anothe r." But trade alsoinvolved compe tit ion . C ha rham had studied Fren chtrade and industry, and he was certa in that Britainmust beat France in the race for an overseas tradeempire.

In 1733 France made an alliance with Spain.Chatham feared that th is alliance would giveFrance a trade advantage ove r Britain th rough freertrade possibilit ies with the Spanish Empire in Sout hAmerica and the Far East. England had been tryingunsuccessfully to develop trade with the Span ishEmpire since the days of Drake. O nce Char harn wasin the govern ment, he decided to make the Brit ishnavy stronge r than that of France or any ot hernation . He also decided to take ove r as many aspossible of France's trading posts abroad.

War with France broke out in 1756. Britain hadalready been invol ved in a war against France , from1743 to 1748, concern ing control of the Aust rianEmpire. However , thi s t ime C hatha rn left Britain 'sally, Prussia, to do most of the fight ing in Europe.He directed Brit ish effort at destroying Frenchtrade. The navy stopped French ships reachi ng orleaving French ports.

The war against France's trade went on all over theworld. In Canada , the Brit ish took Q uebec in 1759and Montreal the following year. This gave the

16 The political world

Brit ish control of the important fish , fur and woodtrades. Meanwhile the French navy was dest royedin a battle near the coast of Spain . In India, thearmy of the Briti sh East Ind ia Company defeatedFrench armies both in Bengal, and in the southnear Madras, destroying French trade inte rests.Many Indian princes allied themselves with oneside or the other. In defeating France , Brita ineventually went on to control most of India byconquest or treaty with the prince s. Many Britonsstarted to go to India to make their fort une. Unlikeprevious British t raders, they had littl e respect forIndian people or for their culture . So, wh ile Indiabecame the "jewel in the Crown" of Britain 'sforeign possessions, Brit ish-Indian relat ions slowlywent sour.

Meanwhile, in 1759, Britain was drunk withvictory. "One is forced to ask every morning whatvictory there is for fear of missing one," anEnglishman said at the time. British pride hadalready been not iced by a Swiss visitor in 1727.The British have a very high opinion ofthemselves, he wrote, and they "t hink nothing is aswell done elsewhere as in the ir own country".Brit ish pride was expressed in a national songwritt en in 1742: "Rule Britannia, Britannia rule thewaves, Britons ne ver never never shall be slaves. II

But a new king, George Ill , came to the th ron e in1760. He did not wish Chatharn to continue anexpensive war. In 1763 George III made peace withFrance. Britain did this without informing Prussia,which was left to fight France alone.

For th e rest of the century, Britain 's int ernat ionaltrade increased rapidl y. By the end of the centurythe West Indies were the most profitable part ofBritain's new empire. They formed one corner of aprofitable trade tr iangle. British-made kn ives,swords and cloth were taken to W est Africa andexchanged for slaves. These were taken to the WestIndies, and the sh ips returned to Brita in carryingsugar which had been grown by slaves. Brita in'scolon ies were an important marketplace in whichthe British sold the goods they produced, from theeightee nt h century until th e end of the empire inthe twen tieth ce ntury.

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An East India Company officialwith his escort of locally recruitedsoldiers. In India the officinls oflhe East India Company madepublic [onwoes for Britain, andprivate fortunesfor themselves.Many, however, didnozsurvivelheeffects of heat anddisease.On the whole Indian societyaccepted "John Company", as(he Eust India Company waslocally known, in bOlh lrade andwarfare as juslcnorher elementin a complica(ed culluml scene.India was used to invaders. itwas only in thenineteen(hcentury that Indiansbegan CO

hare the way lheBritish extended!heir control oeer all lruliaandthe way that the British treated(hem.

Wilkes and libertyGeorge 1II was the fi rst Hanoverian to be born inBritain . Un like his father and grandfat her he hadno interest in Hanover. He wanted to take a moreactive part in governing Britain , and in particularhe wished to be free to choose h is own mini sters.As long as he worked with the small n umber ofaristoc rats from which the king's mini sters werechosen, and who controlled Parliament, it did notseem as if he would have much difficulty.

Parliament st ill represented on ly a very smallnumber of people. In the eighteenth cen tury onlyhouse owners with a certa in income had the rightto vote . T h is was based on ownersh ip of land worthforty sh illings a year in th e cou nties, but theamount varied from town to town. A s a result ,while 'the mid-century population of Britain wasalmost eigh t million, th ere were fewer th an250,000 voters, 160,000 of them in the countiesand 85 ,000 in the towns or "boroughs" . O nly 55 ofthe 200 boroughs had more than 500 voters. Theothe rs were cont rolled by a small num ber of veryrich property owners, sometimes acting together asa "boro ugh corporat ion". Each county and eachborough sent two representat ives to Parliament.

110

T his meant that bargains could be made betweenthe two most powerful groups of people in each"constituency", allow ing the chosen representativeof each group to be returned to Parliament.

It was not difficul t for rich and powerful peopleeithe r in th e boro ughs or in the counties to makesure tha t the man they wanted was elec ted toParliament . In the countryside, most ordinaryland owners also hel d land as tenants from thegreater landowners. At that tim e vot ing was notdone in sec ret , and no ten ant would vote againstthe wishes of his landlord in case he lost his land.O the r vote rs were frigh tened into vot ing for the"right man", or persuaded by a gift of money. Inth is way th e great land owning aristocrats were ableto control those who sat in Parliament , and makesure that MPs did what they wanted. Poli tics was amatte r on ly for a small number of th e gentry whohad close con nec t ions with thi s poli ticalaristocracy. No one could describe Parliament inthose days as democrat ic.

However , th ere was one MP, Joh n W ilkes, whosaw things differen tly. W ilkes was a W i, ig, and didnot like the new government of Ge orge Ill. Unlikealmost every othe r MP, W ilkes also believed that

politi cs shou ld be open to free discussion byeveryone . Free speech , he believed, was the basicright of every individual. When George III madepeace with France in 1763 with out telling his allyFrederick of Prussia, W ilkes printed a srrong attackon the government in his own newspaper, TheNorth Briton. The king and his mini sters wereextremely angry. They were unwilling to accept freespeech of this kind . W ilkes was arrested andimprisoned in the Tower of London and all hisprivate papers were taken from h is home .

Wilkes fought back when he was tried in court .The govern ment claimed it had arrested Wilkes "ofstate necessity". The judge turned down thi sargument with the famous judgement th at "publicpolicy is not an argument in a court of law". Wilkeswon his case and was released. His victoryestablished principles of the greatest importance:that the freedom of the indi vidual is moreimportant than the interests of the state, and thatno one could be arrested without a proper reason.Government was not free to arrest whom it chose.Government, too, was under the law. Wilkes'svictory angered th e king, but made W ilkes the mostpopular man in London.

The ruling class was not used to co nsidering theopin ions of ordinary people. Between 1750 and

16 The political world

1770 the num ber of newspapers had increased.These were read by the enormous number of literatepeople who could never hope to vot e, bur whowere interested in the important matters of thetime s. They were mainl y clerks, skilled workers andtradesmen . Improved roads meant that a newspaperpr inted in London could be reprinted in Liverpoo ltwo days later.

Newspapers in the ir turn increased the amount ofpolitical discussion . Even workin g peop le read thepapers and discussed politics and the royal family,as foreign visitors noticed . "Conversation" clubsmet in different towns to discuss questions like"Under what co nditions is a man most free?", orwhether secret voting was necessary for politicalfreedom. The fact th at ordina ry people who had nopart to play in politics asked and discussed suchquestions explains why John Wilkes was so popular.His struggle showed that public opinion was now anew and powerful influenc e on politics.

W ilkes's victory was important because he hadshown that Parliament did not represent theordinary peop le, and that the ir indi vidual freedomwas not assured. As a result of his victory peop lebegan to organi se political act ivity outsideParliament in order to win their basic rights.Politics were no longer a monopoly of the

ThebatlleofCuUoden in eany1746 (see page 113) marked theend nor onlyof Bonnie PrinceCfulrlie's atrempf to regain (hefhmne for [heSue-rs. It alsomarked fhe beginning of [hedeSfruction of the Highland clansystem. D<wid Moner. fhepainfer. was able to use Highlandprisoners taken asCulloden forthis pcnoe. le therefore showsthe real dress of fhe Highlanders.Although all these men arefromClanCcmcron. !he vane!)' intheir dress and tartan shows ifU '(1.S nor eXi1Cfly a uniform. Theseprisoners were sent to work onplantations in !he Ne«-World.The anUf died asa debtor inFleel prison.

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An Illustrated History of Britain

landowning gent ry. Newspapers were allowed tosend the ir own reporte rs to listen to Parliamen t andwrite about its discussions in th e newspapers. Theage of pub lic opinion had arrived.

Radicalism and the loss of theAmerican coloniesIn 1764 there was a serious quarrel over taxationbetween the British government and its colon ies inAme rica. It was a perfect example of the kind offreedom for wh ich Wilkes had been fighting. TheBritish govern ment con tinued to think of th ecolon ists as Brit ish subjects. In 1700 there had beenonly ZOO,OOO colon ists, but by 1770 there were 2.5million. Such large numbers needed to be dealtwith carefully.

Some American colon ists decided that it was notlawful for the Brit ish to tax them witho ut theiragreement. Poli tical op in ion in Britain was divid ed.Some felt that the tax was fair because the moneywould be used to pay for the defence of theAmerican colon ies against Fren ch attac k. Butsevera l important polit icians, including Wilkes andCha tham, agreed with the colon ists that thereshould be Uno taxation without represen tation ",

112

, "\,

1\,i

The Boston Teapany, /773,wasone of the famous eventsleading to open rebellion by theAmerican co«mists. It was aprotest against British taxationand British monopolies onimports. American colonists,dressed as nacoc Americans,threwa shipload of rea into lheharbour ratherthan pay taxonit.

In 1773 a group of colon ists at th e port of Bostonthrew a sh ipload of tea into the sea rather than paytax on it. The event became known as "the BostonTeapartv". The British gove rnmen t answered byclosing the port. But the colon ists then decided topreven t Brit ish goods from entering America un tilthe port was opened again . T h is was rebellion, andthe gove rnment decided to defeat it by force . T heAmerican Wa r of Independence had begun .

The war in Am erica lasted from 1775 until 1783.The government had no respect for the politics ofthe colonists, and th e British army had no respectfor their fi ghting ability. The result was a disastrousdefeat for the British governmen t. It lost eve rythingexcept for Canada .

Man y British poli ticians open ly suppor ted thecolon ists. They were called "radicals" . For the firstt ime British politicians supported th e rights of theking's subjects abroad to gove rn themselves and tofight for th eir rights against the king. The war inAme rica gave streng th to the new ideas ofdemocracy and of independence .

Two of th e more importan t radicals were EdmundBurke and Tom Pain e. Pain e was the first to suggestthat th e Ame rican colon ists should become

independ ent of Brit ain . Burke, who h imself held amixture of both radical and conservative views,argued that the king and his adv isers were onceagain too powerful, and that Parliament needed toget back prope r control of policy.

Ireland[ames lI 's defeat by W illiam of Orange in 1690 hadsevere and long-term effects on the Irish peop le.Over th e next half century the Protestantparliament in Dublin passed laws to prevent theCatho lics from taking any part in national life.Catho lics could not become members of the Dublinparliament, and could not vote in parliamentaryelections. No Catho lic could beco me a lawyer, goto university, join the navy or accept any publicpost . Catho lics were not even allowed to own ahorse worth more than £5. It was impossible forCatho lics to have their ch ildren educa ted accordingto their religion , because C atho lic schools wereforbidden . A lthough there were still far moreCatho lics than Protestants, they had now becom esecond-class cit izens in the ir own land .

New laws were passed which divided C atho licfamilies. The son of Carho lic parents who becameProresranr cou ld take ove r his paren ts' propert y anduse it as he wanted. These actions put the IrishCatho lic population in the same position as ot he rcolonised peop les later on. Hatred between theruling Protestant settle rs and th e ruled Catho licIrish was unavoidab le.

By the I770s, however, life had become easier andsome of the worst laws against Cat ho lics wereremoved. But not everyone wanted to give theCatho lics more freedom. In Ulster, the northernpart of Irelan d, Protestants formed the first "O rangeLodges", societ ies which were against any freedomfor the Catho lics.

In orde r to increase British control Ireland wasunited with Brita in in 180 1, and the Dublinparliament closed. The United Kingdom of GreatBritain and Ireland lasted for 120 years. Poli tician shad promised Irish leaders that when Irelandbecame part of Brita in the Catholics would get

16 The political world

equal voting opportun it ies. But George 1II,supported by most Tories and by man y ProtestantIrish landlords, refused to let thi s happen.

ScotlandScotland also suffered from the efforts of the Sruartsto win back the thro ne. The first "Jacobite" revoltto win th e crown for james Il' s son, in 1715, hadbeen unsuccessful, T he Stuarts tried again in 1745,when [arnes Il's grandson, Prince C ha rles EdwardStuart, better known as "Bonny Prince C harlie" ,landed on the west coast of Sco tland. He persuadedsome clan ch iefs to join him . Many of these chiefshad great diffi cul ty persuading the men in theirclans to join th e revolt. Some were told the irhomes would be burnt if they did not fight. Mostclans did not join th e rebellion, and nor did themen of the Sco ttis h Lowlands.

Bonny Prince C ha rlie was more successful at firsttha n anyone could have imagined. His army ofHighlanders entered Edinbu rgh and defeated anEnglish army in a surprise attack . T he n he marchedsouth. Pan ic spread through England, becausemuch of the Brit ish arm y was in Europe figh ting theFrench . But success for Bonny Prince C hatl iedepend ed on Englishmen also joining his army.W hen the Highland army was ove r halfway toLondo n , however, it was clear that few of theEnglish would join him , and the Highlandersthemselves were unhappy at being so far fromhome. T he rebels moved back to Sco tland. Early in1746 they were defeated by the British armyat C ulloden, near Inverness. T he rebellion wasfi nished.

The English army behaved with cruelty. ManyHighlanders were killed, even those who had notjoined the rebe llion. O thers were sent to work inAmerica. Their homes were destroyed, and theirfarm an imals killed. The fear of the H ighlanddanger was so great that a law was passed forb iddingHighland ers to wear their trad itio na l skirt, the kilt .T he old patte rns of the kil t, ca lled tart ans, and theSco ttis h musica l instrument, the bagpipe, were alsoforbidden. Some did no t obey this law, and weresho t.

113

17 Life in town and countryTown life ' T he rich ' The countryside • Family life

Town lifeIn 1700 England and Wales had a population ofabout 5.5 million. This had increased very little by1750, but then grew quickly to about 8.8 million bythe end of the century. Including Ireland andSco tland, th e total popu lat ion was about 13million.

In 1700 England was st ill a land of small villages. Inthe northern areas of England, in Lancashire andWest Yorkshire, and in the West Midlands, thelarge cities of the future were only just beginning togrow. By the middle of the century Liverpool.Manchester. Birmingham. Sheffield and Leeds werealready large. But such new towns were st ill treatedas villages and so had no representation inParliament.

All the towns smelled bad . T here were no dra ins.Streets were used as lavatories and the d irt wasseldo m removed. In fact peop le added to it , leavingin the streets the rubbish from the marketplace andfrom houses. The streets were muddy and na rrow,some only two metres wide. Around London andother larger towns a few vegetable growers took thedirt from the st reets to put on the ir fields.

The towns were centres of disease. As a result on lyone ch ild in four in London lived to become anadult. It was the poo r who died youngest. Theywere buried together in large ho les dug in theground. These were not cove red with earth unti lthey were full. It was hard ly surpri sing that poorpeop le found comfort in drinking alcohol and intrying to win money from card games. Quakers,shocked by the terrible effects of gin drinking,devel oped the beer industry in orde r to replace ginwith a less damaging drink .

114

Durin g the eigh teenth cenrurv, efforts were made to

make towns healthier . Streets were built wider . sothat carriages drawn by horses could pass eachothe r. From 1734. London had a street lightingsystem. After 1760 many towns asked Parliament to

allow them to tax their cit izens in order to providesocial services. such as street cleaning and lighting.Each house owner had to pay a local tax, theamount or "rate" of which was decided by the localco uncil or corporation .

Cat ho lics and Jews were st ill not allowed intoParliamen t, and for Nonconformists it co ntinued tobe difficult . but they were all able to belong to thetown counci ls that were now being set up. As these"local authorities" grew, they brought toge ther themerchants and industrial leaders. These started tocreate a new administrative class to carry out thecounc il's will. Soo n London and the ot her townswere so clean and t idy that they became thewonder of Europe . Indeed London had so much to

offer that the great literary figure of the day. Samuel[ohnson, made the now famous remark, "W hen aman is ti red of London, he is tired of life. For thereis in London all that life can afford."

There were four main classes of people ineighteenth-century towns: the wealth y merchants;the ordinary merchants and trad ers; th e skilledcraftsmen; and the large num ber of workers whohad no skill and who could not be sure of findingwork from one day to ano ther.

The richSoc ial conditions were probably better than in anyothe r country in Europe . British aristoc rats had lesspower over th e poor than European aristoc rats had.In 1760 an English lord was actually hanged for

Hogar!h's famous "Gin Lane" wasoneof a series of powerful pictures of theless pleasant aspeCl.S of English social life. This picture iUus tTates theevilsofdrink. in fact gin drinkingled to so much death andCTiminalit)' [hat anumber of Quakers began brewing beeT commerciall)' asan altematiw , lessdamaging, drink. Thecellar enrrcnce. bcncm left , has the inscription"DrinkfOT a Penn)' , dead drunk fOT Twopence, clean straw fOT Nothing. "This isa later coP)' of Hogarth's originalblack andwhite print.

killing h is servant. T here were few places in Europewhere that would have happened. To foreigners,used ro the absolute power of the king and hisnobles, English law seemed an example of perfectjustice , even if it was not really so.

Foreigners not iced how easy it was for the British tomove up and down the social "ladder". In Lond on aman who dressed as a genrleman would be treatedasone. It was difficult to see a clea r differencebetween the aristoc racy, the gentry and the midd leclass of merchants. Most classes mixed freelytogether.

However , the difference between rich and poorcou ld be very great. T he duke of Newcasrle, forexample; had an income of £ 100 ,000 eac h year.

17 Life in (Own and co untry

At the other end of thesocial scale, Thomas Gainsborough, perhapsEngland's finest portrait painter. painted fOT the richandfamous . "TheMOTTling Walk" has a clam domesticit)'about it. There is alsoinforrn.aUt)' anddeep affection in this picture, quite di!feTentfTom thefonnalir y of "TheTichbome Dole" (pog" 102- 103)or !he TuJo,family (pog, 83).

The workers on his lands were lucky if th ey werepaid more rha n £15 a year.

T he comfortab le life of the gentry must have beendull mosr of rhe tim e. The men went hunting andriding, and carried out "improvements" to theirestates. Out ing the eigh teenth century theseimprovements included rebuilding man y greathouses in the classical style. It was also fashionableto arrange natural-looking gardens and parks to

create a carefully made "v iew of nature" from th ewindows of the house. Some of the gentry becameinterested in collect ing trees or plants from abroad.

Women 's lives were more bor ing, although duringthe winter there were freque nt visits to London,where dances and part ies were held. But even the

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An Illustrated Histo ry of Britain

Somerseuhire Buildings in MilsomStreet, Bath, J788, UJeTe among!he finesl lOW71 houses built i, !he"Georgian" period. Bath hassurvitred as England's bestpresened Georgian city because ilUIaS very fashiO'lUlble during ,heeighteenrh century, but suddenlyceased zo be so al [he beginningof[he nineteenth century. As a resulr[he economyof Barh. based upontourism, collapsed andveryfewofthe splendid Georgian buildingsUJeTe replaced during !he nineteenthor twentiethcenturies.

rich est women's lives were limit ed by the idea thatthey cou ld not take a sha re in more serious marrers.They were only allowed to amuse themselves. Asone lord wrote: "Women are only ch ildren of largergrowth . . . A man of sense on ly plays with them. . . he neither tells them about, nor trusts them.with serious matters."

Durin g the eighteenth cent ury, peop le believedthat the natural spring waters in "spa" towns suchas Bath were good for the ir health . These townsbecame fashionable places where most peop le wentro meet ot he r members of high society. Bath ,which is srill rhe best example of an eighteenth­century English city, was fi lled with peopl e whowished to be "seen". In Scotland a "New Town" onthe edge of th e old city of Edinburgh was builr bySco tland's great arch itect , Roberr Ad am . LikeBath , it represented the heigh t of eigh teenth­century British civ ilised life.

The countrysideThe cultura l life of Edinburgh was in toral contrastwith life in the Sco rrish Highlands. Because the kiltand tartan were forbidden , everyone born since1746 had grown up wear ing Lowland (Eng lish)clothes. T he old way of colouring and makingtartan patterns from local plan ts had long beenforgorren. By the time the law forb idding the kiltand tartan was abo lished in 1782, it was too late .

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Highland dress and tart ans became fancy dress, robe worn by Sco ttish soldiers and by lovers of rhepast , bur nor by rhe real Highlanders. Very few ofrhe tart ans th at were worn after 1782 would havebeen recogn ised as "clan" tartans by the men whohad fought at C ulloden.

The real disasrer in th e Highlands, however, waseconomic. Towards the end of th e eighteenthcent ury, the cla n ch iefs began to realise tha t moneycou ld be made from sheep for the wool trade. Theybegan to push the people off th e clan lands, and toreplace them with sheep, a process known as theclearances. The ch iefs treated the clan lands astheir personal property, and the law supportedthe m, just as it supported the enclosure of commonland in England. Between 1790 and 18 50 hundredsof thousands of Highlanders lost th eir old way oflife so that thei r ch iefs could make a profit from theland. Many Highlanders, men , women andch ildren, lived poor on the stree ts of G lasgow.Others went to begin a new life , mainly in Canada,where many settled with ot he r members of theirclan . A smaller number wen t to Au stralia in thenineteenth cent ury. C lan society in the H igh landshad gone for ever.

In England the count ryside cha nged even morethan the towns in the eighteenth century. Mostfanni ng ar the beginn ing of the century was stilldon e as it had been for centuries. Each village srood

in the middle of three or four large fields, and thevillagers together decided what to grow, althoughindividuals cont inued to work on theit own smallstrips of land.

During the eighteenth century most of thi s land wasenclosed. The enclosed land was not used for sheepfarming, as it had been in Tudor t imes, but formixed an imal and cereal farms. People with mon eyand influence, such as th e village squire, persuadedthei r MP to pass a law through Parliament allowingthem to take over common land and to enclose it.The MP was willing to do thi s because thelandowner was often able to help him at the nextelection with the votes of those who worked forhim.

One main cause of these enclosures was th at anumber of the greater landlords, including thearisrocracy, had a great deal of money to invest.This had come partly from profits made fromincreased trade, especi ally with the West Indies andwi th India. It also came from investmen t in coa lmines and iron works, bot h of which had a growingpart of the economy. Fina lly, some aristocrats hadpurc hased development sites on the edge ofLondon, most notably the duke s of Bedford and\Vestmin ster.

Most of them wanted to invest their money on theland, and having improved their own land , andbuilt fine cou ntry houses, they looked to otherland. Theit reason was that farming had becomemuch more profirable . From the mid-seventeenthcentury there had been a number of improvementsin fanning, and a growth of interest in farmingmethods. Britain and Holland were better atfarming than any ot her country in Europe . At thebeginning of the e ightee nth ce ntury a "seed drill",amachine for sowi ng corn seed in straight lines andat fixed intervals, was inve nted by [erhro T ul!. T hismade fields easier to weed , and made it possible toproduce a great er cro p. O ther farme rs had started tounderstand how to improv e soil. At the same time,root crops grown in Holland were introduced inBritain.

Tradition ally the land had been allowed to restevery three years. But by growing roo t crops one

17 Life in town and coun try

Theeighteenth~Ct'Jlfury enclosures of village fannland changed much ofEngland's landscape. In this aerial dew of Padbury, Buckinghamshire. {heold mip fanning pcnern cansoUbeseen, as weUas {he newhedgerowsmarking rhe enclosures of {he genfry farmers.

year, anima l food the nex t, and wheat the th ird,farmers cou ld now produce more. G rowing anim alfood also made it possible to keep an imals th roughthe winter. This was an important newdeve lopment. Before the mid-eighteenth centurymost an imals were killed before winter becausethere was never eno ugh food to keep them until thefollowin g spring. For the first tim e people couldnow eat fresh meat all the year round.

These improvements, however, were a good dealmore difficult to introduce when most farmland wasst ill organ ised by the whole village community as ithad been for centuries. No strip farmer could affordthe necessary machine ry. and it was not worthbuying machi nery for such small amounts of land inthree different areas around the village. Richerfarmers want ed to change the system of farming,including the system of landhold ing. W ith onelarge area for each farm the new machinery andmethods would work very well. They had themoney to do thi s, and could expec t the help of thevillage squire and their MP, who were also richfarmers with the same interests. They had a strongeconomic argument for introducing change because

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An Illustrated History of Britai n

it was clea r th at the new methods would producemore food for eac h ac re of lan d th an th e tradit iona lmethods. T he re was also ano the r strong reason ,tho ugh at the tim e people may not have realised it.T he pop ulat ion had started to grow at a greatlyincreased rate.

T he enclosures, and the farming improvementsfrom wh ich they resulted, made possible far grea teran d more efficien t food producti on than could befound in almost any other country in Europe. T herecords of Britain's largest meat market, Smithfieldin Lond on , show the extraordinary improvement inanima l farming. In 1710 th e ave rage weight of anox was 168 kg, by 1795 it was 364 kg. During thesame period the ave rage weight of a sheep inSmithfield rose from 17 kg to 36 kg.

Improved use of lan d made it possible to growwheat almost everywhere. For th e first tim eeveryone, incl uding the poor , cou ld eat whitewheat bread. W hite bread was less healthy tha nbrown, but the poor en joyed the idea tha t theycou ld afford the same bread as the rich . In spite ofthe greatly increased production of food , however,Brita in co uld no longer feed itself by th e end of th ecentury. Imported food from abroad becamenecessary to feed the rapid ly growing popu lat ion.

But in social terms the enclosures were damaging.V illagers sometimes knew no th ing abo ut an

.enclos ure unti l th ey were sent off th e land. So mehad built the ir homes on common land and th esewere destroyed . Over one tho usand patl iamentaryActs resulted in the enclosure of about four millionac res in the second half of the century. Man y of thepoor tho ught this was no better th an stea ling:

They han g the man and flog the woman,T hat stea ls the goose from off th e co mmon,But leave the greater crimina l looseT hat stea ls the com mon from th e goose .

T he enclosures changed the look of much of th ecountryside . Instead of a few large fields th ere werenow many sma ller fields, each enc ircled with ahedge , many with trees growing in them.

T he problem of the growing landless class was madevery much worse by the rap id increase in

118

pop ulation in th e second half of the century. Somewere able to work with the new farming class.Others were not able to find work . Ma ny of thesehad to depend on the help of the Poor Laws, firstintroduced by Queen Elizabeth I.

A nothe r problem was th at there were several yearsof bad harvests whic h resulted in a sharp increase inwheat prices. Local magistrates could have fixedwages to make sure th e poor could afford to eat. Butin man y places, th ey chose instead to help thosewhose wages were part icul arly low out of the localrat es. T he most famo us exa mple was in a villageca lled Speenha mland, and th e "SpeenhamlandAct" was cop ied in man y parts of the cou ntry. Itwas a disastrous system, because employers werenow able to emp loy peop le cheaply know ing thatth e parish would have to add to the low wages theypa id. Some emp loyers eve n lowered th eir wagesafter th e Speenha rn lan d Act. It is not surpr isingth at as a result th e nat ion al cost of helping the poorrose from £2 million in 1790 to £4 mi llion in 1800.

A no ther effec t of the Speenhamland Act was toincrease the growth of the population . Help wasgiven to a family according to th e numbe r ofchildren. Before the enclosures farme rs had smallerfamilies because the land had to be divided amongth e children, and because young men would notmarry until th ey had a farm of th eir own. T heenclosures removed the need for these limi ts, andth e Speenhamland Act encouraged larger famili essince th is mean t an increase in finan cial help.

Neig hbouring parishes join ed togethe r to build a"parish workhouse" whe re most of the poor werefed an d housed. So me parishes hi red th e workhouseand its pop ulation to a local businessman whowanted cheap workers. He prov ided food in returnfor work. This quickly led to a syste m little betrerth an slavery, with ch ildren as well as adults beingmade to work long hours. T hese effects brough tabou t the co llapse of th e old Poor Law and led to anew law in 1834.

O ther peop le left th eir village and went to thetowns to find work . T hey provided th e ene rgy thatmade possible an even greater revolu tion wh ich wasto cha nge the face of Brita in .

Family lifeIn the eighteenth century fami lies began to expressaffect ion mor e open ly th an before . In addit ion itseems th at for th e first t ime children were no longerthought of as sma ll adults, but as a distinct group ofpeople with spec ial needs. A century after th eQuaker, Penn, th ere was a growing voice advisinggentleness with children . O ne popular eighteenth­cent ury handbook on th e upbringing of children ,itself a sign ificant deve lopment , warned: "Severeand frequ ent whipping is, I th ink , a very badpract ice ." In I 798 anot he r handbook to ld mothersthat "The first objec t in the education of a ch ildshould be to acquire its affect ion, and the second to

obta in its co nfidence. The most likely thing toexpand a yout hful mind is .. . pra ise."

Girls, however, continued to be victims of theparents' desire to make them match the pop ularidea of femin ine beauty of slim bodies, tight waistsand a pa le appearance. To achieve th is aim, and soimprove the chances of a good marriage, parentsforced th eir daugh ters in to tightly waisted clothes,and gave th em on ly littl e food to avo id an

17 Life in town and co untry

unfash ionablv heal th y appearance . Undoubtedlythi s behaviour exp lain s the idea and reality of fra ilfeminine hea lth which continued into thenineteenth century.

Parents st ill often dec ided on a suita ble marriage fortheir children, but they increasingl y sought th eirch ildren's opinion . However.rsons and daughtersoften had to marry against their wishes. O ne man ,forced to give up the only woman he ever loved,wrote, "I sighed as a lover , but I obeyed as a son ."But love and companionship were slowly becomingaccepted reasons for marriage. As one husbandwrot e to his wife after fifteen years of marriage, " Ihave onl y time to say that I love you dearly, - bestof women, best of wives, and best of friends." Ifsuch feel ings descr ibed a sixteenth- or seventeenth­century marriage th ey were less ope nly stated, andperhaps less ope nly expected.

T he increase in affection was partly because peop lecould now expec t a reasonably long life. T h isresulted mainly from imp roved diet and the grea tercleanliness of co tton rather tha n woo llenund erclo thing. However , it was also th e result of a

Hogarthis beS! knownfarhisrealistic pictures of scceo's ills,bw to make moneyhe alsopaintedwealchy people. "TheGraham Children" givesadelighrful liew ofa wann relaxedandjoUy atmosphere. Play beganto be recognisedas good farchildren, butonly faryoungones. 11 was feared that ifolderchildrenplayed they wouldbecome la" aduh One lmdwrote to his sonon his ninthbirthday, "Childish lO)'s andplaythings musr be thrown aside,and your mind directed to seriousobjec!s. "

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An Illustrated History of Britain

growing idea of kindness. For perhaps the first timepeople sta rted to believe th at cruelty either tohumans or animals was wrong. It did not preventbad factory condit ions , but it did help those tryingto end slavery. At the root of th is dislike of crueltywas the idea that every hum an was an indi vidual.

This growing individu alism showed itself in a desirefor pr ivacy. In the seventeenth century middle -classand wealthi er families were served by servants, wholistened to the ir conversat ion as they ate. Theylived in rooms that led one to another, usuallyth rough wide do uble doors. Not even the bedroomswere private. But in the eighteenth cen tury familiesbegan to eat alone , preferring to serve themselvesth an to have servants listening to eve ryth ing theyhad to say. They also rebuilt the insides of theirhomes, putting in corridors, so that every person inthe family had the ir own private bedroom.

Britain was ahead of the rest of Europe in thi sindividualism. A lmost certain ly thi s was the resultof the polit ical as well as economic strength of themiddle class, and the way in which the middle classmixed so easily with th e gentry and aristocracy.Ind ividualism was important to trade and industrialsuccess.

The most successful in trade and industry wereoften Nonconformists, who were especiallyhardworking. They could be hard on their families,as Puri tan fathe rs had been a cen tury earlier. Butthey were also ambitious for their sons , sendingth em away to boarding schoo l at a young age.Removed from famil y affect ion , thi s kind ofeducat ion increased individualism. Starved ofemo tiona l life, many of these boys grew up to putall their energy into power, either helping to buildthe empi re, or hel ping to build trade and ind ustry.

Such indi vidualism could not exist for the poorerclasses. Where women and children could find workmaking cloth, a worker family might doubl e itsincome, and do quite well. But a poor family inwhich on ly th e father could find work lived on theedge of starvation.

T he Speenha mland Ac t was not practi sedeverywhere. An increasing number offamilies had

120

no choice but to go to the parish workhouse. Somebabies were even killed or left to die by desperatemothers. A poor woman expecting a baby was oftensen t out of th e parish, so that feedin g th e motherand ch ild became th e responsibility of anotherparish workhouse.

The use of child labour in the workhouse and in thenew factories increased towards th e end of thecentury. This was hardly surprising. A rapidlygrowing population made a world of ch ildren.C h ildren of the poor had always worked as soon asth ey could walk. W orkhouse children wereexpec ted to learn a simple task from the age ofthree , and almost all would be working by th e ageof six or seven . They were part icularly useful tofactory owne rs because th ey were easy to disciplin e,unlike adults, and they were cheap.

Then, quite sudden ly at the end of the century,ch ild labour began to be seen as shameful. Thisresulted partl y from the growing dislike of cruelty,and also from the fact that hard ch ild labourbecame more visible and more systematic now thatso many people worked in factor ies rathe r tha n infields and cott ages. A first blow had been strucksome years earlier. Horrified by the suffering ofch ildren forced to sweep ch imneys, two mencampaigned for almost thirty years to persuadeParliament to pass a Regulatin g Ac t in 1788 to

reduc e the cruelty invol ved . In the nin eteenthcentury the condit ion of poor ch ildren was tobecom e a main area of social reform . This was aresponse not on ly to the fact that ch ildren weresuffering more, but also tha t their sufferings weremore public.

18 The years of revolutionIndustrial revolution ' Society and religion ' Revolution in France andthe Napoleonic Wars

Industrial revolutionSeveral influen ces came together at the same timeto revolution ise Britain's industry: money, labour, agreater dem and for goods, new power, and bettertransport.

By the end of the eighteenth century, some familieshad made huge private fortunes. Growing merch antbanks helped put thi s money to use.

Increased food prod uction made it possible to feedlarge popu lations in the new towns. Thesepopulations were made up of the peop le who hadlost th eir land through enclosures and were lookingfor work. T hey now needed to buy things they hadnever needed before. In the old days people in thevillages had grown the ir own food, made many oftheir own clothes and generally managed with outhaving to buy very much . As landless workers thesepeople had to buy food, clot hing and eve ryth ingelse th ey needed. T his created an opportun ity to

make and sell more goods than ever before. T hesame landless people who needed these things alsobecame the workers who made them.

By the early eighteenth century simple mach ineshad alread y been invented for basic jobs. Theycould make large quantities of simple goods qu icklyand cheaply so that "mass production" becamepossible for the fi rst t ime. Each machi ne carried outone simple process, wh ich introduced the idea of"division of labour " among workers. This was tobecome an imporrant part of the industri alrevolution .

By the I740s the main prob lem holding back

indu strial growth was fuel. There was less wood,and in an y case wood cou ld not produce the heatnecessary to make iron and steel either in largequantities or of high quality. But at thi s time theuse of coal for chang ing iron ore into good qualityiron or steel was perfected, and this made Britainthe leading iron produ cer in Europe. Th is happenedon ly just in time for the many wars in which Britainwas to fight, mainly against Fran ce , for the rest ofthe century. T he demand for coal grew veryquickly. In 1800 Brita in was producing four t imes asmuch coal as it had don e in 1700 , and eight timesas much iron .

Increased iron production made it possible toman ufacture new machinery for othe r industries.No one saw th is more clearly than Joh n W ilkinson ,a man with a tot al belief in iron . He built thelargest ironworks in the country. He built theworld's first iron bridge, over the River Severn, in1779. He saw the fi rst iron boats made . He built aniron cha pel for the new Methodist religious sect ,and was him self buried in an iron coffin. Wilkinsonwas also qu ick to see the value of new inventions.Whe n [arnes Watt made a great ly improved steamengine in 1769, W ilkinson improved it furthe r bymaking part s of the engine more accura tely with hisspecial skills in ironworking, In thi s way the skillsof one craft helped the skills of ano ther. Until thensteam engines had only been used for pumping,usually in coal mines. But in 178 1 Watt producedan engine with a turning motion , made of iron andsteel. It was a vit al devel opment because peoplewere now no longe r depe ndent on natural power.

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An Illustrated H istory of Britain

An early coal mine in theMidlands. The useof coal faralmmt allenergy ledto a huge amount ofsmoke which blackened buildings andcreated dark' 'smogs". mixtures of smoke andfog, in winter.

Spinners at work. People lookedbackat theage of cottage industryasa happy time compared withthebleak discipline of flUtoryemployment. Theview was,perhaps, over-idealised. Conditionswere dark and less pleasant thanthis picluresuggests. Frequently itwas only women's spinning thatkept a family from start/a tion. 811.1at leas t families warked wge fher asan economic unit. All thiswasbroken up by the new machinery.Button making was one of the fewcottage industries to survit/e beyond/850.

122

One invention led to ano ther. and increasedproduct ion in one area led to increased produc tio nin othe rs. Other basic materi als of th e industr ialrevolut ion were cotton and woollen clot h. wh ichwere popu lar abroad. In the middle of the centuryother countries were buying British uni forms.equipment and weapon s for their armies. To meetthis increased demand. better methods ofproduction had to be found. and new mach inerywas inve nted wh ich replaced hand work. Theproduct ion of cotton goods had been limited by thespinn ing process. wh ich could not prov ide enoughcotton thread for the weavers. In 1764 a spinningmachine was in vented which could do the work ofseveral hand spinne rs. and other impro vedmach ines were made shortly after. With the fargreater produc tio n of cotton thread. the slowestpart of the cotton cloth rnaking industry becameweaving. In 1785 a power machine for weavingrevolut ionised clot hmaking. It allowed Britain tomake cloth more cheaply than elsewhere. andLancash ire co tton cloths were sold in everycontinent . But this machi nery put many peop le outofwork. It also cha nged wha t had been a "cottageindustry" done at home int o a factory indu stry.where workers had to keep work hours and rules setdown by facto ry owners.

In the Midlands. facto ries using locally found claybegan to develop very quickly. and produced finequality plates. cups and other china goods. Thesesoon replaced the old meta l plates and drinkingcups that had been used . Soon large quantities ofchina were being exported. T he most famousfactory was one started by Josiah Wedgwood. Hishigh quality bone ch ina became very popular. as itstill is.

The cost of such goods was made cheaper tha n eve rby improved t ransport during the eigh teenthcentury. New waterways were dug between towns,and transport by these canals was cheaper thantransport by land. Roads. still used main ly bypeople rather than by goods, were also improvedduring the century. York. Manchester and Exeterwere three days' travel from Lond on in the 1720s.but by the 1780s they could be reach ed in littleover twenty -four hours. Along these main roads.

18 The years of revolution

the coac hes stop ped for fresh ho rses in order tokeep up their speed. They became known as "stage"coac hes . a name that became famous in th e "W ildWest" of America. It was rapid road trave l andcheap transport by cana l that made possible theeconomic success of the industrial revolution.

Soon Britain was not on ly export ing cloth toEurope . It was also importing raw cotton from itscolonies and exporti ng finished cot ton clo th to sellto those same co lonies.

The social effects of th e industrial revolution wereenormous. Workers tried to join togethe r to protectthemselves against powerfu l employers. T heywanted fair wages and reason able condi t ions inwhich to work . But the governmen t quickly bannedthese "combinat ions"I as the workers' societies wereknown. Riots occurred. led by the une mployed whohad been replaced in factories by mach ines. In 1799some of these rioters. known as Luddit es, started tobreak up the machinery wh ich had put the m out ofwork . The government supported the factoryowne rs. and made the breaki ng of machi nerypun ishable by death . The govern ment was afraid ofa revolu tion like the one in France .

Society and religionBritain avo ided revolution partl y becau se of a newreligious movement. T his did not come from theChurch of England. which was slow to recognisechange . Man y new industrial towns in fact had nochurch or priests or any kind of organ ised religion.The Church of England did not recognise theproblems of these towns. and many priests belongedto the gentry and sha red the opin ions of thegovernment and ruling class.

The new movement wh ich met the needs of thegrowing industrial working class was led by aremarkable man caIled John We sley. He was anAnglican priest who traveIled aro und the countrypreaching and teac h ing. In 1738 Wesley had had amystical experience. " I felt my heart strange lywarmed." he wrote afterwards. "I felt thar 1 did

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An Illustrated History of Britain

A Methodist meeting in 1777. The habit of preaching in rhe openair drew poorerpeople who usually did not go to church. The Methodist prea.:hers uenr et!eT)'where,riding fTom village to village wilh lheir good news thal Christ had diedfor f'wryone.They even visited priSOTU, oflen to comfon Ihose condemned to hang.

trust in Chris t , C hrist alone for my salvat ion ; andan assurance was given that he had taken my sins,even mine, and saved me from sin and dea th ." Forfifty-three years John Wes ley trave lled 224,000miles on horseback, preach ing at every village hecame to. Sometimes he preac hed in three differentvillages in one day. Very soon ot he rs joined in hiswork . John Wes ley visited the new villages andindustria l towns which had no par ish church.

John W esley's "Merhodism" was above all apersona l and emot iona l form of religion . It wasorgan ised in small groups, or "chapels", all over thecountry. At a time when the C hurc h of Englanditself showed little interest in the socia l and

124

spiritual needs of the growing popul ation ,Met hod ism was able to give ordinary peop le a senseof purpose and digni ty. T he C hurc h was ne rvousofthis powerfu l new movement which it cou ld notcontrol. and in the end Wes ley was forced to leavethe C hurch of England and start a new Method istChurc h .

By th e end of the century there were ove r 360Met hod ist chapels, most of them in indu strial areas.These chapels were more democrat ic th an theC hurch of England, partly beca use th e memb ers ofeach chapel had ro find the money to pay for them.The Anglican Church, on the ot her hand, had agood income from the land it owned.

John Wesley was no friend of the ruling classes buthe was deeply conservative, and had no time forradicalism. He disapproved of Wilkes and thoughtthe French Revo lut ion was the work of the deviI."The greate r the sha re the peop le have ingovernment," he wrote, lithe less liberty, civil orreligious, does a nat ion enjoy." He carefullyavoided politics, and taugh t peop le to behardworking and honest . As a result of histeaching, peop le accepted man y of the injustices ofthe times without complaint. Some became wealthythrough working hard and saving the ir money. Asan old man , W esley sadly noted how hard work ledto wealth, and wealth to pride and that thi sthreatened to destroy his work . "Although the formof religion remains," he wrote, lithe spirit is swiftlyvanish ing away." However, W esley probably savedBritain from revolution . He certain ly brough t man ypeople back to C h rist ianity.

The Methodists were not alone. Other C hris tiansalso joined what became known as "t he evange licalrevival" , which was a return to a simple faith basedon the Bible. It was almost a reawaken ing ofPuritan ism, but this time with a social rather than apolit ical invo lvement. Some, especia lly theQuakers, beca me well known for social conce rn.One of th e best known was Elizabeth Fry, whomade public the terr ible conditions in the prisons,and started to work for reform.

It was also a small group of Christ ians who were thefirst to act against the evils of the slave trade , fromwhich Britain was making huge sums of money.Slaves did not expect to live long. A lmost 20 percent died on the voyage. Most of the others diedyoung from crue l treatment in the West Indies. Forexample, berween 1712 and 1768200,000 slaveswere sent to work in Barbados, but during thi speriod the popu latio n of Barbados only increased by26,000.

The first success against slavery came when a judgeruled that "no man cou ld be a slave in Britain " ,and freed a slave who had land ed in Bristol. Thisvictory gave a new and unexpected meaning to th ewords of the na tional song, "Britons never sha ll beslaves." In fact, just as Brita in had take n a lead in

18 The years of revolution

slavery and the slave trade, it also took the leadint ernationally in ending them. The slave trade wasabo lished by law in 1807. But it took until 1833 forslavery itself to be abolished in all Brit ish colon ies.

O thers, also main ly Christ ians, tried to limit thecruelty of emp loyers who forced ch ildren to worklong hours. In 1802, as a result of the ir efforts,Parliament passed the first Facto ry Act , limitingchild labour to twelve hours each day. In 18 19 anew law forbade the employment of ch ildren underthe age of nine. Ne ither of these two Acts wereobeyed everywhe re, but they were th e earlyexamples of government act ion to protect the weakagainst the powerful.

T he influence of these eigh teenth-century religiousmovemen ts continued. A ce ntury later, whenworkers started to organ ise the mselves moreeffectively, many of those involved had beenbrought up in Methodist or other No nconformistsects. This had a great influence on trade unionismand the labour movement in Britain .

Revolution in France and theNapoleonic WarsFrance's neighbours only slowly realised that itsrevolution in 1789 could be dangerous for th em.Military power and the aut hority of kingship werealmost useless against revolut ionary ideas.

In France the revo lut ion had been made by the"bourgeoisie", or middle class, leading the peasantsand urban working classes. In England thebourgeoisie and the gentry had acted toget her forcenturies in the House of Commons, and hadbecome the most powerful class in Britain in theseventeenth century. They had no sympathy withthe French revolut iona ries, and were frigh tened bythe danger of "awaken ing" the working classes.They saw the danger of revolut ion in the Britishcountryside, where the enclosures were happening,and in the towns , to wh ich man y of the landlesswere going in search of work. They also saw thepolitical dangers whic h cou ld devel op from thegreat increase in popula tion .

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An Hlusrrarcd H istor y of Britain

"Breaking Ihd j ne" aI the banle of Trafalgar, 1805. The traditioTltll iacucwas re exchange "broadsides" of gunfire between opposingships. Nelsontook his ships in two lines across (from right to left >, rather thanalonRside,theenemy farrnalion (Fren ch fleet sailing from back left to front righ t ofpic ture) . His ships' gunswere able ro fire down thelength of each FrenchshiP as il passed. This had two advantages. The bows and stem of a wm shipwere the leas! defended parts, so the English ships suffered muchless in theexchangeof gunfire. Secondly, thegunshot travelled thewhole length of theenemy decks, calLSing grealdamaRe to theshiP and lossof life.

126

r ..," /'rJlJS(l1(pr

'II"I~" •

f revolution18 The years 0

" haws WiIIul.m{ the nme sA cartoon 0 Bonaparle can,mgPiu and Napoleon le n has sliced offup the world. Na{;;,~ taken theITWSt of EUTOf "Uke almoSI e\leT)' otherAtlantic WhlC. contTOlled byseaor ocean. wasBn"rain's M \I)' .

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An Illustrated History of Britain

Several radicals sympath ised with the cause of theFrench revolutionaries, and called for reforms inBritain. In other countries in Europe such sympathywas seen as an attack on the aristocracy. But inEngland both the gentry and the bourgeoisie feltthey were being atta cked, and the radicals wereaccused of putt ing Brita in in danger. Tory crowdsattacked th e homes of radicals in Birmin gham andseve ral ot her cit ies. T he Whig Parry was split. Mostfeared "[acobinism'' , as sympathy with th erevolutionaries was ca lled, and joined W illiam Pitr ,"the Younger" (the son of Lord Cha tharn) , whilethose who wanted reform stayed with the radicalWhig leader , C ha rles James Fox. In spite of itssmall size, Fox's parry formed the link between theWhigs of the eigh teenth century and the Liberals ofthe nin eteenth century.

Not all the radicals sympath ised with therevolutionaries in France . In man y ways EdmundBurke was a conservat ive, in spite of his support forthe Am erican colon ists in 1776. He now quarrelledwith ot her radicals, and wrote Reflections on theRevolution in France, which became a popular book.He feared that the established order of kin gs inEurope would fall. Tom Paine, who had alsosupported the American colon ists, wrote in answerThe Rights of Man, in which he defended the rightsof the ordinary people against the power of themonarch y and the aristocrats. T he ideas in th isbook were thought to be so dangerous that Painehad to escape to France. He never returned toBritain . But the book itself has remained animportant work on the quest ion of politicalfreedom .

T hese marrers were discussed almost entirely by themiddl e class and the gentry. Hardly any working­class voices were heard , but it should be notedthat the fi rst defin ite ly working-class politicalorganisa tio n. the Correspon ding Soc iety, wasesrablished at th is t ime. It did not last long,because the government closed it down in 1798,and it only had branch es in London, Norwich,Sheffield , Nottingha m and one or two othercentres.

128

T he French Revolution had creared fear all overEurope. The Brit ish government was so afraid thatrevolution would spread to Britain that itimprisoned radical leaders. It was part icularlyfrigh tened tha t the army would be influenced bythese dangerous ideas. Until the n, soldiers hadalways lived in inns and private homes. Now thegovernment built army camps, where soldiers couldlive separated from the ordinary peop le. T hegovernmen t also brought togethe r yeomen andgentry who suppo rted rhe ruling establishment andtrained the m as soldiers. T he gove rnment cla imedthat these "yeomanry" forces were created in case ofa Frenc h attack. This may have been true, but theywere probably useless against an ene my army, andthey were used to prevent revolu tion by the poorand discontented.

As an island , Britain was in less danger, and as aresult was slower than other European sta tes tomake war on the French Republic. But in 1793Britain went to war after France had invaded theLow Co untries (today, Belgium and Holland). Oneby one th e European countr ies were defeated byNapoleon, and forced to ally th emselves with him.Most of Europe fell under Napoleon 's con tro l.

Britain decided to fight France at sea because ithad a stronge r navy, and because its own survivaldepended on control of its trade routes. Britishpolicy was to damage French trade by preve nt ingFren ch sh ips, including the ir navy, from movingfreely in and out of Fren ch seaporrs. T hecom mander of the British fl eet , Ad miral Ho rat ioNe lson, won brilliant victories ove r the Frenchnavy, near the coast of Egypt, at Copenhage n , andfinally nea r Spain , at Trafalgar in 1805, whe re hedestroyed the French- Spani sh fleet. Nelson washimself killed at Trafalgar , but became one ofBritain's greatest nationa l heroes. His words to thefleet before the battle of T rafalgar, "En glandexpects th at every man will do his duty, " haveremain ed a reminde r of patr iot ic duty in time ofnational danger.

In the same year as Trafalgar, in 1805. a Britisharmy land ed in Portugal to fight the French . T hisarmy, with its Portuguese and Span ish allies, waseventually commanded by We llington, a man who

had fought in Indi a. But fi ght ing the French onland was an entirely different matter. Almosteveryone in Europe believed the French army. andits generals. to be the best in the world. We llingtonwas one of the very few gene rals who did not . " I amnot afraid of them." he wrote on h is appointmentas commander. "I suspect th at all the Contine ntalarmies were more than half beate n before the battlewas begun . I, at least , will not be frightenedbeforehand ." Like Ne lson he quickly proved to be agreat co mmander. A fter several victories againstthe Fren ch in Spain he invaded Fran ce. Napoleon ,weaken ed by his disastrous invasion of Russia,surren dered in 1814 . But th e following year heescaped and quick ly assembled an army in France.Wellington. with the t imely help of the Prussianarmy. finally defea ted Napoleon at Waterloo inBelgium in Jun e 1815 .

18 The yearsof revolution

129

130

The nineteenth century19 The years of power and danger

T he danger at home, 181 5- 32' Reform ' Workers revolt· Family life

Britain in the nineteenth century was at its mostpowerful and self-confident. After the industr ialrevolu tion , ninereenth-centurv Britain was the"workshop" of the world. Until the last quarter ofthe century British facto ries we re produc ing morethan any ot he r count ry in th e world.

By the end of the century, Britain's empire waspolitical rath er tha n commercial. Brita in used th isempire to contro l large areas of the world. T heempire gave the British a feeling of the ir ownimportance which was difficult to forget whenBritain lost its power in the twentieth cen tury. Thisbelief of the British in the it own importance was atits he ight in the midd le of the n ineteen th cen tury,among the new middle class, which had grown withindustrialisat ion. The novelist C harles Dickensnicely described thi s national pride. One of hischaracters, Mr Podsnap, believed that Britain hadbeen specially chosen by God and "co nsideredothe r countr ies a mistake".

The rapid growth of the middle class was part of th eenormous rise in the population. In 1815 thepopulation was 13 million , but this had doub led by1871, and was over 40 million by 1914 . Thisgrowth and the movement of peop le to town s fromthe countryside forced a cha nge in the polit icalbalance, and by the end of the century most menhad the righ t to vote . Politi cs and governmentduring the nin eteenth century became increasinglythe property of the middle class. The aristoc racyand the Crown had little power left by 19 14.

William Bdl Scan's "Iron and Coal", painted 1864-67, has a quile newatmosphere of pride in labourandindustry. Such pride was the mark ofBritain in the ninereenrh cemuT). Onecan feel (he enonnousenergyofindustrial revolution in rhis painting.

However, the work ing class, the large number ofpeople who had left their villages to become facto ryworkers, had not yet found a proper voice.

Britain enjoyed a strong place in European counc ilsafter the defeat of Napoleon. Its strength was nor ina larger popu lation , as thi s was half that of Franceand Austr ia, and only a littl e greater than that ofPrussia. It lay instead in industry and trade , and thenavy which prote cte d rhis trade.

Brita in want ed two main things in Europe: a"balance of power" whic h would prevent ~ny singlenat ion from beco ming too strong, and a free marketin which its ow n industrial and trade superioritywould give Brita in a clear advantage. It succeededin the fi rst aim by encouraging the recovery ofFrance, to balance the power of Austr ia. Furthereas t, it was glad that Russia's influence in Europewas limited by Prussia and the empires of Austriaand Turkey. These all sha red a border with Russia.

O utside Europe, Brita in wished its trading positionto be srronger rhan anyone else's. It defended itsinterests by keeping ships of its navy in almostevery ocean of th e world . T h is was possible becauseit had taken over and occupied a number of placesduring the war against Napoleon . These inclu dedMauritius (in the Indian Ocean), the Ioni an Islands(in rhe easrern Mediterranean ), Sierra Leone (westAfrica) , Cape Co lony (south Africa), Cey lon, andSingapore.

After 18 15 the British gove rnm ent did not on ly tryto develop its trading stations, Irs policy now was tocontrol world traffic and world markets ro Brita in'sadvantage. Britain did not , how ever, wish toco lonise everywhere . There were many areas in

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An Illustrated History of Britain

which it had no interest . But there were ot herareas, usually close to its own possessions or onimportant trade routes, which it wished eve ryoneelse to leave alone . It was as a result of defendingthese interests tha t Britain took ove r more andmore land. Britain's main anx iety in its foreignpolicy was tha t Russia would try to expandsouthwards, by taking ove r the Slavic parts ofTurkey's Balkan possessions, and might reach theMediterrane an. For most of the cen tury, therefore,Britain did its best to support Turkey againstRussian expansio n. In spite of its power, Britainalso felt increasingly anxious about growingcomper ition from France and Ge rmany in the lastpart of the century. Most of the colon ies esrablishedin the nineteen th century were more to do withpolitical control than with tradin g for profit.

The conce rns in Europe and th e protecti on of traderout es in the rest of the world guided Britain 'sforeign policy for a hundred years. It was to keepthe balance in Europe in 1838 that Britainpromised to protect Belgium against strongerneighbours. In spite of political and economictroubles in Europe, thi s policy kept Britain fromwar in Europe for a century from 1815 . In fact itwas in defence of Belgium in 1914 that Britainfinally went to war against Ge rmany.

The danger at home, 1815-32Until about 1850, Britain was in great er danger athome than abroad. The Napoleon ic Wa rs hadturned th e nation from thoughts of revolution torhe need to defeat the French. They had alsohidden th e social effects of rhe indu strialrevolution . Britain had sold clothes, guns, andothe r necessary war supplies to its allies' armies aswell as irs own. At the same time, corn had beenimported to keep th e narion and irs army fed.

A ll thi s cha nged whe n peace came in 1815.Suddenly there was no longer such a need forfacto ry-made goods, and many lost their jobs.Unemployment was made worse by 300,000 menfrom Britain 's army and navy who were nowlooking for work. At the same time , theland owning farmers' own incom e had suffered

132

because of chea per imported corn . T hese farmerspersuaded the government to introduce laws toprotect locally grown corn an d th e price at which itwas sold. T he cost of bread rose quic kly, an d th isled to increases in the price of almost everyth ing.While prices doubled, wages remained the same.New methods of farming also reduced the numberof workers on th e land.

The gene ral misery began to cause trouble. In 1830,for example, starving farmworkers in the south ofEngland rioted for increased wages. People tr ied toadd to th eir food supply by catc h ing wild birds andan imals. But almosr all rhe woods had beenenclosed by th e local landlord and new laws weremade to stop peop le hunting animals for food .Many had to choose bet ween watc hing their familygo hungry and risking the severe pun ishment ofthose who were caught. A man found with nets inhis home could be transported to the new "penal"colony in Austra lia for seven years. A man caughthun tin g with a gun or a kn ife migh t be hanged, andun til 1823 th ieves caught entering houses andstea ling were also hanged. T hese laws showed howmuch the rich feared the poor, and alrhough theywere slowly softened, the fear remained.

There were good reasons for this fear. A new poorlaw in 1834 was in tended to improve the help givento the needy. But central government did notprovide the necessa ry money and many peoplereceive d even less help than before. Now , on lythose who actually lived in the workhouse weregiven any help at all. The workhouses were fearedand hated. They were crowded and dirty, withbarely enough food to keep people al ive. T heinha bitants had to work from early morn ing till lateat night. T he sexes were separated , so families weredivided. C harles Dickens wrote about theworkhouse in his novels. His descriptions of the lifeof crime and misery into whic h poor people wereforced shocked the riche r classes, and cond it ionsslowly improved.

In orde r to avo id the workho use, many looked for abetter life in the towns. Between 1815 and 1835Brita in changed from being a nation of cou ntrypeop le to a nation mainly of townspeople. In thefirst thirty years of the nineteenth century, cit ies

19 The years of power and danger

Above; Sheffield was link more rrum a large village in rhe early eighreenthcenno-y. By 1858 it was one of the fastesl growing towns of the industrialrct'Vlwi(Jn. with hundreds of facrory chimneys crearing a new skyline.

Below; Engltmd's populalion distriburion. Even by 1801, ,hedrif' CO ,hewums in rhe Midlands and nor,hwest of England Will considerable, and ,hisJIIot/emell! increased during the firs ' halfof the nineteench century.

FIDISTRIBUTION OF POPULA TlON I,------~@®®Dover 12 per square

mile

EJ 8-11 per squ aremile

D less than 8 persquare mile

over 150 persquare mile

~ 1OQ.150persquare mileo less than 100 persquare mile

l

over 200 persquare mile

[] 150·200 persquare mile

D less than 150 persquare mile

,---~~a'a'~ over 40 per square

mile

~ 30·40 per squaremile

D less than 30 persquare mite

I3J

A n Illustrated History of Britain

like Birmingham and Sheffield doub led in size,while Manchester, G lasgow and Leeds more thandoubled . Se veral town s close together grew intohuge ci ties with no co untryside left in be twee n .The main city areas were northwest England, wherethe new ca rron industry was based, the northMidlands, the area around G lasgow, and southWales. But althoug h these cit ies grew fast, Londonremain ed th e largest. In 1820 London was home for1.25 million , out of a total Brit ish population ofabout IS million .

If the rich feared the poor in the countryside, theyfeared eve n more those in the fast-growing towns.These were harde r to control. If they had beenorganised , a revol ution like that in France mighthave happen ed. But they were not organised, andhad no leaders. O nly a few radical polit icians spokefor the poor , but th ey failed to work in close co­operation with the workers who could havesupported them.

Severa l riots did, however , take place, and thego vernment reacted nervously. In 1819 , forexampl e, a large crowd of workin g people and theirfamilies gathe red in Manchester to protest againsttheir conditions and to listen to a radical speech infavour of change. Sudden ly they were attacked bysoldiers on horses. Eleven peop le were killed andmore than on e hundred wounded . The strugglebetween the government, frightened of revoluti on ,and those who wanted cha nge became greater.

ReformT he Whigs understood bette r th an the Tories theneed to reform the law in order to improv e socia lcondit ions. Like the Tor ies they feared revolution ,but unlike the Tor ies they believed it could only beavoided by reform . Indeed , the idea of reform tomake the parliamentary system fairer had begun inthe eightee nth century. It had been started by earlyradicals, and encouraged by the Am erican War ofIndependence, and by th e French Revolution .

The Tories bel ieved th at Parliamen t shouldrepresent "property" and the property owners, anidea that is still associated by some with today's

134

Tory Party. T he radicals believed that Parl iamentshould represent the peop le. The Whigs, or Liberalsas they later became known , were in the midd le,wanting enough change to avo id revolu tion butlittle more .

T he Tories hoped that the House of Lords wouldprote ct the interests of the property owners. Whenthe Commons agreed on reform in 1830 it wasturned down by the House of Lords. But the Toriesfell from power the same year, and Lord G reyformed a Whig government. Grey himself hadsupported th e call for reform as a radical in 1792. In1832 th e Lords acce pted the Reform Bill, but morebecause they were frightened by the riots in thestreets outside than because they now accepted theidea of reform. T hey feared that the collapse ofpolitical and civil order migh t lead to revolution.

At fi rst sigh t the Reform Bill itself seemed almost apolit ical revolut ion . Sco tland's vot ers increasedfrom 5,000 to 65,000. Forty-one English towns,inclu ding the large cit ies of Manch ester,Birmingham and Bradford, were represen ted inParl iament for the very fi rst t ime . But there werelimits to the progress made. T he total number ofvoters increased by on ly 50 per cent. T he 349electors of th e small town of Buckingham still hadas many MPs to represen t them as the 4, 192electo rs of the city of Leeds. And England, withunly 54 per cent of the Brit ish population,cont inued to have over 70 per cent of MPs as it haddone before. However, in spite of its shortcomings,the 1832 Reform Bill was a polit ical recognit ionthat Britain had become an urban society.

Workers revoltSince 1824 workers had been allowed to jointogether in union s. Most of these unions were smalland weak. Al though one of their aims was to makesure employers paid reason able wages, they alsotried to prevent other peop le from working in theirparti cular trade. As a result the worki ng classes stillfound it diffi cult to act togethe r. Determin edemployers could still quite easily defeat strikers whorefused to work until the ir pay was improved, andoften did so with cruelty and violence. Soldiers

The Penny Blackslamp inrroduudc1u:ap postage in 1840. ensuringc1u:ap communications fareveryone. The Royal Mail prideditself on 4ficienl seroice. Over the)'ears it has remained one of thebest puslal services in theworld.

were somet imes used to force people back to workor break up meetings.

In 1834. there was an event of great importance intrade union history. Six farmworkers in the Dorsetvillage of Tolpuddle joined together. promising tobe loyal to their "union" . Their employer managedtu find a law by which th ey cou ld be punished. Ajudge had been specially appo inted by thegovernment to fi nd th e six men guilty. and thi s hedid. In London 30 .000 workers and radicalsgathered to ask the government to pardon the"Tolpudd le Mart yrs". T he government. afraid ofseeming weak. did not do so until the "martyrs"had completed part of their puni shment . It was abad mistake. Tolpuddle became a symbol ofemployers' cruelty. and of the working classes' needto defend themselves through trade union strength.

The radicals and workers were greatly helped intheir efforts by the introduct ion of a cheap postagesystem in 1840. This enabled the m to organ isethemselves across the country far better thanbefore. For one penny a letter cou ld be sen t toanyone , anywhere in Britain.

19 The years of power and danger

I

TheChartist rallyon Kennington Common. sOldh London. markedtheendof fhe mceemenr. It failed to changemuchby constitutionalmeans, and usleaders feared fhe resulfSof trying to change socery by Imconstitldionalmethods. This rally, likeprevious ones, uw altendedmosrIy by men. Veryfeu'",'Omen can beseen,

Working toget her for the fi rst time. un ions, workersand rad icals put forward a People's C harter in 1838.The Charter demanded rights th at are nowaccepted by everyone: the vote for all adults; theright for a man with out property of his own to bean MP; voting in secret (so that people could notbe forced to vote for thei r landlord or his party);payment for MPs. and an election eve ry year(which eve ryone today recognises as impractical) .A ll of these dema nds were refused by the House ofCo mmons.

The "Chartists" were not united for long. Theywere divid ed between those ready to use violenceand those who believed in change by lawful meanson ly. Man y did not like the idea of women alsogett ing the vote. partly because they believed itwould make it harder to obtain voting rights for allmen . and thi s demand. which had been includ ed inthe wording to the very fi rst Cha rte r. was quietlyforgotten . But riots and politica l meet ingscont inued. In 1839 fourteen men were killed bysoldiers in a riot in Newport. Wales. and manyothers sent to one of Britain's co lonies as prisone rs.

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Many parts of London and other large cities·were very dangerous,particularly afterdark. It was fOT this reason that thefirst regular police fomwas established by Sir Robert "Bob" Peel, after whom thenew police WCTe

nicknamed "bobbies".

T he government's seve re actions showed how muchit feared that the poor might tak e powe r, andestablish a repub lic.

T he govern ment was saved par tly by the skill ofRobert Peel , the Prime Min ister of th e tim e. Peelbel ieved that cha nges sho uld be made slowly butstea d ily. He was able to use th e improved econo miccond itio ns in the 1840s to weaken the C ha rt istmovement, wh ich slowly d ied . In 1846 heabolished th e un pop ular Corn Law of 181 5, whichhad kept the price of co rn higher th an necessary.Not on ly had this made life hard for those wit hlitt le money, bu t it had brough t their emp loyers,the growing class of industrialists, into co nflict withth e lan d lord class.

T hese ind ust rialists nei th er wished to pay h igherwages, nor employ an underfed workforce. In this

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way, Peel's dec ision to repeal the Corn Law was asign of the way power was passing out of the handsof the eigh teenth-ce ntury gen try cla ss. These hadkept the ir powe r in the early years of th enineteenth century. But now power decisivelypassed into th e hand s of th e growing number ofindustri alists and traders.

Besides hunger, crime was th e mark of poverty.Pee l had turned hi s attention to th is pro blemalready , by establishi ng a regular po lice force forLond on in 1829. A t first peopl e had laughed at h isblue-un iformed men in th eir top hats. But dur ingthe next th irty years almost every othe r to wn andcounty sta rted its own police force. The new policeforces soon pro ved th emselves successful, as muchcrime was pushed out of th e larger cities, th en outof tow ns and th en out of the countryside. Peel wasable to sho w th at cert ain ty of punishmen t was farmore effecrive tha n cruelty of pun ishment.

Britain's success in avo iding the storm of revolutionin Europe in 1848 was admired almost everywhere.Europ ean monarchs wished they were as safe ontheir th rones as the British qu een seemed to be.A nd liberals and revolutionar ies wish ed th ey couldac t as freely as radicals in Britain were able to do.Britain had bee n a political model in the eigh­teenth century, bu t with the War of Ind ependencein Ameri ca and revolut ion in France interest inliberalism and democracy turned to these twocountries. Now it moved back to Britain, as amodel bo th of industr ial success and of freecons tit ut ional government . For much of the nine­teen th cen tu ry Brita in was th e envy of the wor ld.

Family lifeIn spite of the greater emphasis on the individualand th e growth of open ly sho wn affect ion , th e endof the eigh teent h century also saw a swing back tostr icter ideas of family life. In part , th e close familyresulted from the growth of new att itudes toprivacy, perhaps a necessary part of individualism.It was also th e result of th e removal, over a per iodbeginning in the sixteenth ce ntury, of the socialand economic suppor t of the wide r family andvillage community, which had made family life so

"Dinner Hour at Wigan" byEyre Crcee ( 1844- 1910)gitesa fine bw romantic t'ieu'of life inoneof Britain's industrial roccns.Factory women cannot oftenhave looked so clean Qf healthy.Some wearuocdern soled clogs ondlerr feet, others arebarefoot. Itis a picture fuU of intereSl, andperhaps die mosr important pointof die picture is the comtxJnion·ship of women. Women's closestfriendships were probably moreoften made u.ithoUter womenthan with their husbands. In themiddlegrotmd stands apoliceman, a reminder ofawhority andthat authority wasmnk.

19 Th e years of power and danger

much more public . Except for the very rich . peop leno longer married for economic reasons. but did sofor personal happiness. However. wh ile wives mightbe companions. they were certain ly not equal s. Assomeone wrote in 1800 . "the husband and wife areone. and the husband is that one" . As the idea ofthe close family und er the "master" of thehousehold became stronger. so the possibility for awife to find emot iona l support or practi cal adviceoutside the immediate family became more limit ed.In addit ion. as the idea of the close family slowlyspread down the socia l order. an increasing numberof women found their sole economic and socialusefulne ss ended when the ir ch ildren grew up. aproblem that continued into the twentieth cent ury.The y were discouraged from going out to work ifnot eco nomically necessary. and also encouraged to

make use of the growing number of people availablefor domestic service.

This return to authority exercised by the head ofthe family was largely th e result of th ree things.These were fear of politi cal revolution spreadingfrom France. of social cha nge caused by industri alrevolution in Britain. and the influen ce of the newreligious movements of Methodism andEvangeli calism.

O ne must wonder how much these things reducedth e chance of happy family life. Individualism.strict parental beh aviour. the regular beating ofchildren (whi ch was still widespread). and the cruelcondit ions for those boys at boarding schoo l. allworked against it. O ne should not be surprised thatfamily life often ended when ch ildren grew up. Asone foreigner no ted in 1828. "grown up ch ildrenand thei r parents soon become almost strangers". Itis impossible to be sure what effect this kind offamily life had on ch ildren. But no doubt it madeyoung men unfee ling towards their own wives who .with unmarried sisters. were the responsibili ty ofthe man of the house. A wife was legally a man 'sproperty. unti l nea rly the end of the century.

In spite of a stricter moral at mosphere in Sco tlandwhich resulted from the strong influence of theKirk. Scottish women seem to have continued astronger trad ition of independent att itudes andplain speaking. In 1830 a Scotswoman ca lled for"the perfect equa lity of her sex to tha t of man " .Another in 1838 wrote. "It is the righ t of eve rywoman to have a vote . . . in her county, and moreso now that we have got a woman [Qu een Vicroria]at the head of government." She had a long tim e to

wait.

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20 The years of self..confidenceThe railway · The rise of the middle classes· The growth of towns andcities· Population and politics· Queen and monarchy· Queen andempire· Wales, Scotland and Ireland

In 1851 Q ueen Victoria opened th e GreatExhibi tion of th e Industries of All Nations insidethe C rystal Palace, in London. T he exh ibit ionaimed to show the wor ld the greatness of Britain'sindu stry . No other nation could produce as much atthat tim e. At the end of the eighteenth century,France had produced more iron th an Britain . By1850 Britain was producing more iron than the restof the world together.

Britain had become powerful because it had enoughcoal, iron and stee l for its own eno rmo us industry!and co uld even export them in large quantities to

Europe. With these materials it could produc e newheavy industrial goods like iron ships and stea mengines . It cou ld also make machinery whichproduced traditional goods like woollen and cottoncloth in the factor ies of Lancashire. Britain 's clothwas cheap and was exported to India, to othercolon ies and throughout th e Middl e East , where itquickly destroyed the local cloth industry, causinggreat misery. Britain made and owned more thanhalf the world 's total sh ipping. This great industrialempire was supported by a strong banking systemdeveloped during the eigh teenth cent ury.

The railwayThe greatest example of Britain 's industrial powerin the mid-nineteenth ce ntury was its railwaysystem. Indeed, it was mainl y because of this newform of transport that six million people were ableto visit th e Great Exhibition , 109,000 of them onone day. Man y of th em had never visited Lond on

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before . A s one newspaper wrote , "Ho w few amongthe last gene rat ion ever st irred beyond their ownvillages. How few of the present will die with outvisit ing London. " It was impossible for politi calreform not to co ntinue on ce e veryone could escapelocalism and travel all over the coun try with suchease.

In fact industrialists had built th e railways totransport goods , not people , in orde r to bring downthe cost of transport. By 18402,400 miles of trackhad been laid, connec ting not on ly the industrialtowns of the north , but also London, Birminghamand even an econo mically unimportant town likeBrighton. By 1870 the railway system of Britain wasalmost complete. The canals were soon empty aseveryth ing went by rail. The speed of the railwayeven made possible the delivery of fresh fi sh andraspberries from Sco tland to London in one night .

In 1851 the governmen t made the railwaycompanies provide passenger trains which stoppedat all sta t ions for a fare of one penny per mile. Nowpeople could move about much more quickly andeasily.

The middl e classes soon took adva ntage of the newopportun ity to live in suburbs, from which theytravelled into the city every day by train . Thesuburb was a copy of the country village with all theadvan tages of the town. Most of the London areawas built very rapidl y between 1850 and 1880 inrespon se to the eno rmo us dem and for a home in thesuburbs.

"HomeSueer Home" fry WalterSadler shows a prosperOl;s homein about 1850. The branches ofIwlly decoratingthemirror.rrw.ntelpieceand picture feUusthat it is Christmas, but it isbefore the age of greetings cards.Silfing either side of the fireplacear/? me grandparenf5, enjoying!he family scene, Mother plays!he piano, while the father andchildrensing. Theeldesl daughterhas been reading, possibly aloudIQgit'eher grandparenf5 pleasure.B6ide rhe grandmother stands aroundframe on which someonehas been doing embroidery work.On the floor is a "Turkeycarpel", probably a Britishmachi fle~rruule copy of the moree.tpensit'e handwoven carpelS fromr",key.

20 The yearsof self-confidence

Poor people's lives also benefired by the railway.Many moved with the middle classes to thesuburbs, into smaller houses. The men trave lled bytrain to work in the town . Many of rhe womenbecame servant s in the houses of the middle classes.By 1850 16 per cent of the population were "inservice" in private homes, more than were infarming or in the cloth industry.

The rise of the middle classesThere had been a "middle class" in Brita in forhundreds of years. It was a small class of merchants,traders and small farmers. In rhe second half of theeighteen th century it had increased wirh the rise ofindustrialists and factory owners.

In the n ineteen th century, however, the middleclass grew more quickly than ever before andincluded greater differences of wealt h , socialposit ion and kinds of work. It included those whoworked in th e professions, such as the Church, thelaw, medicine, rhe civil service, the dip lomat icservice, merch ant ban king and th e army and thenavy.

lsambard Kingdom Brunei( 1806- 1859) uus a middle-class man whorepresenred the height of Britishengineering success and theleadership of rhemiddleclasses in nationallife. In 1833 heotJersaw theconstruction of rheGreat Western Railway. In 1838 hedes igned lhe firs t steamshitJ10 cross rheAildntic regularly. In 1845 hebuilt lheGreat Britain. the first /iITge shiP to

be IIUtde of iron with a screw propeller.

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An Illustrated History of Britain

It also included the commercial classes, however,who were the real creators of wealth in the country.Industrialists were often "self-made" men who camefrom poor beginnings. They believed in hard work ,a regular style of life and bein g careful with money.This class included both the very successful andrich industr ialists and the small shopkeepers andoffice workers of the growing towns and suburbs.

In spite of the idea of "class" , the Victori an age wasa time of great social movement. The ch ildren ofthe first gene rat ion of factory owners often preferredcommerce and banking to industry . While the irfathers remained Nonconformist and Libera l, somechildren became Anglican and Tory. Some wentinto the professions. The very successful receivedknighthoods or became lords and joined the ranksof the upper classes.

Those of the middl e class who could afford it senttheir sons to feepaying "public" schools. Theseschools aimed not only to give boys a goodeducat ion, but to train th em in leadersh ip by rakin gthem away from hom e and making their livingconditions hard . These public schoo ls providedman y of the officers for the armed forces, thecolonial admini stration and the c ivil service .

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"Capiwl and Lahour". tI cartoonfrom Punch magazine. Agentleman relaxes comforted inthe knowledge that the sufferingsof thepoor have at least givenhisfamily andhimself such luxury.Below. in thebackground, childlabourers can beseen roilingalong the galleries of a coal mine.

-=~~---

The growth of towns and citiesThe escape of the middle classes to the suburbs wasund erstandable. The cit ies and towns wereove rcrowded and unhealth y. One baby in four diedwith in a year of its birth . In 1832 an outbreak ofcho lera, a disease spread by dirty water, killed3 1,000 people. Proper drains and water supplieswere still limit ed to those who could afford them.

In th e middle of the century towns began toappoin t health officers and to provide prope r drainsand clea n water, which quick ly reduced the level ofdisease , particularly cho lera. T hese health officersalso tried to make sure that new housing was lesscrowded. Even so, there were many "slum" areas forfactory workers. where tiny homes were built veryclose toget her. The better town counc ils providedparks in newly built areas, as well as libraries,public baths where peop le could wash, and evenconcert halls.

Some towns grew very fast. In the north , forexample, Middlesbrough grew from nothing to aniron and steel town of 150 ,000 people in on ly fiftyyears. Most people did not own th eir homes, butrented the m. T he homes of the workers usually had

MrG/adswlIe 5peaking in theHouse of Commons, /882. Eachpari), sat on eith('T side of theSpeaker (seated hack right ) andthe cemral wble. The Speaker'sresponsibili ty was to ensure thearderly conduct of parliamentarybusiness. Tohelp him, a line ..dong !he jlom (running unde>-the feel of oneof G/adstone's.;olleagues) marks the boundaryeach MPMd !O stay behind oneach side of the House. TIW uwto amid angry argumentsbecoming fights . The two linesare two sUlOTd1engrhs' distanceapart . The si/,'eT mace on thewble is a symbolof royalallthority.

20 The years of self-confidence

only four small rooms, two upstairs and twodownsta irs, with a small back yard. Most of themiddle classes lived in houses with a small gardenin front, and a larger one at the back.

Population and politicsIn 185 1, an official popu lation survey was carriedout for the fi rst t ime. It showed th at the nation wasnot as religious as its people had believed. Only 60per cent of the popul ation went to ch urch. Thesurvey also showe d that of rhese only 5.2 millioncalled themselves Anglicans, compared with 4.5million No nco nformists and almost half a millionCatholics. C hanges in the law, in 1828 and 1829,made ir possible , for the first t ime since theseventeenth ce ntury, for Catho lics andNonconformists to en ter government service and toenter Parliamen t. In practice, however, it remaineddifficult for them to do so. The Tory-Anglicanalliance could hard ly keep rhem our'any longer. Burthe No nco nformists naturally supported theLiberals, rhe more reformisr parry. In fact theTories held office for less th an five years between1846 and 1874 .

In 1846, when Sir Roberr Pee l had fallen frompower , the shape of British politics was st illunclear. Peel was a Tory, and many Tor ies felt tha this repeal of the Corn Laws tha t year was a betrayalof Tory beliefs. Peel had already made himself veryunpopular by supporr ing the right of Catho lics to

enter Parliament in 1829. But Peel was a truerepresentative of the style of politics at the t ime .Like other politicians he acted independently, inspite of his parry membership. One reason for thi swas the numbe r of cr ises in Brit ish polit ics for awhole generation after 1815. Those in power foundthey often had to avoid dangerous polit ical,eco nomic or socia l situations by taking steps theythemselves wou ld have preferred not to take. Thiswas the case with Peel. He did not wish to seeCatho lics in Parliament, but he was forced to letthem in . He did not wish to repeal the Corn Lawsbecause these served the farming int erests of theTory landowning class, but he had ro accep t thatthe power of the manufacruring middle class wasgrowing greater than that of the landed Torygentry.

Peel's actions were also evidence of a growingaccep tance by both Tories and Whigs of the

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7:1',

A n Illustrated History of Britain

Much of London srilllooks as itdid in the closing yearsof thenineleenth century. "SI PcncnuHotel and Stalion fromPenlOnville Road: Sunset" byJohn O 'CannOT (1884) shows SIPancras as it was meant W beseen, a temple lO ViclOrianvalues lowering above thesurrounding houses. St Pancra5,buill by George G ilbertSeen. isone of Lmu1m's fines t "Gothicrevival" buildings.

econ om ic need for free trade, as well as th e need forsoc ial and political reform to allow th e middle classto grow riche r and to expand . T h is meanr allowinga freer and more open socie ty, with all the dangersthat might mean , It also meant encouraging a freerand more open soc iety in th e co untries with whichBritain hoped to trade. T h is was "Liberalism", andthe Whigs, who were genera lly more willing toadva nce these ideas, beca me known as Liberals.

Some T or ies also pursued essentially "Liberal"policy. In 1823, for example, the T ory ForeignSec retary, Lord Cann ing, used th e navy to preventSpa in sending troops to her rebell ious co lon ies inSouth America. T he British were glad to see th eliberation movement led by Simon Bolivar succeed.However. this was partly for an economic reason,Spain had prevented Brita in 's free t rade withSpan ish co lon ies since the days of Drake.

C ann ing had also been responsible for helping theGreeks achieve their freedom from the T urkishempire. He did th is partly in order to sat isfyromant ic liberalism in Brita in , whi ch supportedG reek freedom mainly as a result of th e influen ce ofth e great poet of the time, Lord Byron , who hadvisited G reece. But Can n ing also knew that Russia,like G reece an orthodo x C hrist ian country, might

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use th e exc use of Turkish misrule to take con trol ofG reece itself. Cann ing judged correctly th at anindependent Greece would be a more effect ivecheck to Russian expansion,

From 1846 until 1865 th e most impo rta nt politicalfi gure was Lord Palmerston , described by oneh istor ian as "the most charac te rist ica lly mid­Vict orian statesman of all." He was a Libera l, butlike Peel he often went against h is own party' s ideasand values. Palmerston was kn own for liberalism inh is foreign po licy. He strongly believed thatdespotic states discoura ged free trade, and heopen ly supported European libera l andindependence movements. In 1859- 60, forexample, Palmerston successfully supported th eItalian inde penden ce movement against bothA ustrian and French interests. W ithin Britain ,however , Palmersron was a good dea l less liberal,and did not wan t to allow further political reform to

ta ke place. T his was not totally surprising, since hehad been a T ory as a young man un der Canningand had join ed the W h igs at the t ime of the 1832Reform Bill. It was also typical of th e co nfusingindividualism of po lit ics tha t th e Liberal LordPalmersron was invited to join a Tory governmentin 1852.

Afte r Palrnersron's death in 1865 a much stricter"two party" system deve loped , demanding greaterloyalty from its membe rsh ip. T he two parti es. Tory(or Conservative as it became officially known ) andLiberal, developed greater party organisation andorder. There was also a cha nge in the kind of menwho became politi cal leaders. T his was a result ofthe Reform of 1832, afte r which a much largernumber of peop le co uld vote. T hese new voterschose a different kind of MP. men from thecommercial rather tha n the landowning class.

Gladstone, the new Libera l leader . had been afactory owner. He had also sta rted h is polit ical lifeas a Tory. Even more surprisingly BenjaminDisraeli, the new Conservative leader. was ofJewish origin. In 1860 Jews were for th e first timegiven equal righ ts with ot he r citizens. Disraeli hadled the Tory attack on Peel in 1846. and broughtdown his gove rnment. At that tim e Disraeli hadstrongly supported the interests of the landedgentry. Twenty years later Disrae li h imself changedthe outlook of the Conservat ive Party , deliberate lyincreasing th e party 's support among the midd leclass. S ince 1881 the Co nservat ive Part y hasgenera lly remain ed the strongest.

Much of what we know today as the modern sta tewas built in the 1860s and 1870s. Between 1867and 1884 the num ber of vote rs increased from 20per cent to 60 per cent of men in towns and to 70per cent in the country, including some of theworking class. O ne immediate effect was the rapidgrowth in party organi sation , with branches inevery town, able to organise things locally. In 1872voting was carried out in secret for the first time,allowing ordina ry people to vote freely and withoutfear. Th is, and the growt h of the newspaperindustry, in particular "popular" newspapers for thenew half-educated popu lation. strengthened theimportance of popu lar opin ion . Democracy grewquickly. A national political pattern appeared.England, particularly the south. was moreconservat ive, wh ile Sco tland. Ireland. Wales andthe north of England appeared more radical. Thispattern has gene rally continued since then . TheHouse of Commons grew in size to over 650members. and the House of Lords lost th e powerful

20 The years of self-confidence

position it had held in th e eighteent h an d earlynin eteenth ce nturies. Now it no longer formedpolicy but tried to prevent reform raking placethrough the House of Co mmons.

Democracy also grew rapid ly outs ide Parliament. In1844 a "Co-operative Movement" was started by afew Chartists and trade un ionists. Its purpose wasself-help, thro ugh a network of shops which soldgoods at a fair and low price, and which shared allits profits among its members. It was verysuccessful, with 150 Co-operative stores by 1851 inthe north of England and Sco tland. By 1889 it hadover 800.000 members. Co-operat ive self-help wasa powerful way in whic h the working class gain edself-confidence in spite of its weak posit ion .

After 1850 a number of trade un ions grew up. basedon part icular kinds of skilled labour. However .unlike many European worker struggles, the Englishtrade unions sought to ach ieve their goals throughparl iamen tary dem ocracy . In 1868 the first congressof trade unions met in Manchester, represen ting11 8,000 members. T he following year the newT rades Union Congress established a parliamentarycom mittee with the purpose of ach ieving workerrepresentation in Parliament. This wish to workwithin Parliament rather tha n outside it had alreadybrought trade unionists into close co-o peration withradicals and reformi st Liberals. Even theConservative Party tried to attract worker suppo rt .However, there were limits to Conservative andLiberal co-operat ion . It was one thing to encourage"friendly" societ ies for the peaceful benefi t ofworkers. It was quite anot her to enco urage unioncampaigns using strike acti on . During the 1870swages were lowered in many factor ies and th is ledto more strikes than had been seen in Brita inbefore. T he trade un ions' mixture of worker struggleand desire to work democratically withi nParl iament led eventually to the foundation of theLabour Part y.

Durin g the same period the machinery of moderngovernment was set up. Durin g the 1850s a regularcivil service was established to carry out the work ofgove rnme nt . and "civil servants" were carefullychosen after taking an examination. The system

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An Illustrated History of Britain

still ex ists today. The army, too, was reorganised,and from 1870 officers were no longer able to buyrheir co mmissions. The admin istration of the lawwas reorgan ised. Local gover nment in towns andcounties was reorganised to make sure of goodgovern me nt and proper services for the peo ple. In1867 the first move was made to introdu ce free andcompulsory education for ch ildre n. In fac t socia limprovement and po litical reform acted on eac hothe r througho ut the ce nt ury to cha nge the face ofth e nation almost beyond recogni t ion.

Queen and monarchyQ uee n V ictor ia ca me to the th rone as a youngwoman in 1837 and re igned unti l her death in190 l. She did not like the way in wh ich powerseemed to be slipp ing so qui ck ly away from th emonarchy and ar istoc racy , bu t like her adv isers shewas unable to prevent it. V ictoria married aGerman, Prince A lbert of Saxe-Coburg, but hed ied at th e age of forty-t wo in 186 I . She co uld notge t over her sorrow at hi s death , and for a long t imerefused to be seen in public.

Th is was a dangerous th ing to do. Newspapersbegan to criticise her. and some eve n questionedth e va lue of th e monarch y. Many radi cals act uallybelieved th e end of monarch y was bound to happenas a resul t of democracy. Most had no wish to hurrythi s process, an d were happy to let th e monarch ydie naturally. However , the queen 's adviserspersuaded her to take a more public interest in th ebusiness of the kingdom. She did so, and she soonbecame extraord ina rily po pular. By th e t imeVictoria died the monarch y was better loved amongthe British than it had eve r been before .

O ne importan t step back to po pularity was th epu blication in 1868 of th e queen 's book Our life inthe Highlands. The book was the qu een 's own diary,with draw ings, of her life with Prin ce A lbert atBalmoral, her cas tle in th e Scottish H ighl and s. Itdeli ghted the publ ic , in part icular the grow ingmiddle class. They had never before knownanythi ng of th e pr ivate life of the monarch , andth ey enjoyed being able to sha re it . She referred tothe Prince Consort simply as "Alberr", to the

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Queen Victoria in her six ty~eighlh year, 1887. Because of lhe growthofparliamentary government she was lesspowerful than previous sovereigns .However, as queen and empress, she ruledover more lands and peoples thanany previous sovereigns. Furthermore, she enfoved the respect and affectionof her British subjects.

Prince of W ales as "Ber tie" , and to th e Prin cessRoya l as "Vicky". The qu een also wrote about herservan ts as if they were members of her fami ly.

The increasingly democratic Briti sh respected theexample of famil y life whi ch the que en had giventhem, and shared its moral and reli gio us values. Butshe also tou ched peop le's hear ts. She succe eded inshowing a newly industrialised nation th at th emonarch y was a co nnec tion with a glorious history.In spi te of the efforts of earlier monarch s to stop thespread of democracy, the monarch y was now , quite

suddenly, out of danger. It was never safer thanwhen it had lost most of its polit ical power.

"We have come to believe that ir is narural to havea virtuous sove reign ," wrote one Victorian. Purefamily moralit y was an idea of royalty tha t wou ldhave been of little interest to the subjects of earliermonarchs.

Queen and empireBrita in's emp ire had first been built on trade andthe need to defend th is aga inst rival Europeancountries. After the loss of the American colon iesin 1783, the idea of creat ing new co lon ies remain edunpopular until th e 1830s. Instead, Britain watchedthe oceans carefully to make sure its trade route swere safe, and fought wars in order to protect its"areas of interest" . In 1839 it attacked C hina andforced it to allow the profitable British trade inopium from Ind ia to Ch ina. The "Opium Wars"were one of the more shameful events in Britishcolon ial history.

Afrer about 1850 Britain was driven more by fear ofgrowing European compet ition than by commercialneed. This led to the taking of land, the creat ion ofcolon ies, and to co lon ial wars that were ext remelyexpensive. Fear that Russia would advancesouthwards towards India resulted in a disastrouswar in Afghanistan ( 1839 -42), in which one armywas completely destroyed by Afghan forces in themountains. Soon after, Britain was fight ing a war inSindh, a part of modern Pakistan, th en anot heragainst Sikhs in the Punjab, in northwest Indi a.

The Russian danger also affected south Europe andthe Middl e East. Brita in feared that Russia woulddestroy th e weak O ttoman Empire, wh ichcont rolled Turkey and the Arab countr ies. T hiswould cha nge the balance of power in Europe , andbe a danger to Britain 's sea and land routes toIndia. When Russia and O ttoman Turkey went towar Britain joined th e Turks against Russia inCrimea in 1854 , in order to stop Russian expansio ninto Asiat ic Turkey in the Black Sea area.

It was the fi rst, and last, t ime th at newspapers wereable to report freely on a British war without army

20 The yearsof self-confidence

cont rol. They told some unwelc ome truths; torexample, they wrote abour the courage of theordinary soldiers, and the poor quality of theirofficers. They also reported the shocking conditionsin army hospita ls, and the remarkable work of thenurse Florence N ight ingale.

In India, the unwise treatm ent of Indian soldiers inBritish pay resulted in revolt in 1857. Known inBritain as the "Indian Mutiny" , thi s revolt quicklybecame a national movement against foreign rule ,led by a number of Hindu and Muslim princes.Many of these had recently lost power and land tothe British rulers. If they had been better organised,they would have been able to th row the British outof India. Both British and Indians behaved withgreat violence, and the British cruelly punished thedefeated rebels. T he friend ship between the Britishand the Indians never fully recovered . A feeling ofdistrust and distance between ruler and ruled grewinto the Indian independence movement of thetwentieth century.

In Afr ica , Brita in 's first interest had been the slavetrade on the wesr coast. It then took over the C apeof Good Hope at rhe southern point , because itneeded a port there to service the sea route toIndi a.

Britain' s interest in Africa was increased by reportssent back by European travellers and explorers. Themost famous of these was David Livingsrone, whowas a Scottish doctor, a C hrist ian missionary andan explorer. In many ways, Livingstone was a "manof his age". No one could doubt his courage, or hishonesty. His journ eys from the east coast into"darkest" Africa excited the British. They greatlyadmired him . Livingstone discovered areas of Africaunknown to European s, and "opened" these areasto C hristianity, to European ideas and to Europeantrade.

Christ ian ity too easily became a tool for building acommercial and politica l empire in Africa . Thegovernments of Europe rushed in to take what theycould, using the excuse of bringing "c ivilisat ion" tothe peop le. The rush for land became so great thatEuropean countries agreed by treat y in 1890 todivide Africa int o "areas of interest". By th e end of

145

An Illustrated History of Britain

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Our Empire Atlas. 1897, cleaTly ,Show,S Britairi',S 'smuegic control of muchof the world. Although not markedas such. Egypt and the Sudan were elsecolonies in praccce. Theextent of Britain'scolonial possessions doubledduring the nineteenth century. Britain's appetite far new possessions roucrdsthe end of the century wasa sign of its nervousness concerning the growth ofOIher European world powers, particularly France and Germany. AllhvughBritain became rich partly through her colonialpossessions, defending themt'wnrudlly proved too grear a strain on Britain's economy.

the century , several European countries had takenover large areas of Africa . Brita in succeeded intaking most .

In South Africa Britain found th at dealing withother European set tlers present ed new prob lems.T he Dutch settlers, the Boers, fought two warsagainst the Brit ish at the end of the century,proving again. as the C rimean W ar had done. theweakn esses of the British army. The Boers weredefeated on ly with great difficulty.

The real problems of British imperial ambition,however. were most obvious in Egypt . Britain.anxious about the safety of the route to Indi a

146

20 The yearsof self-confidence

throug h the ne wly dug Suez Cana l, bought a largenumber of sha res in the Suez Ca na l company .

When Egyptian nation alists brought down the rulerin 1882, Britain invaded " to protect internation alshipping" . In fact, it acted to protect its imperialinte rest, its route to India. Britain to ld the world itsoccupa tion of Egypt was on ly for a short t ime, but itdid not leave unti l forced to do so in 1954.Involvement in Egypt led to invasion and takeo verof the Sudan in 1884, a country two-thirds the sizeof India. Like ot her powers, Britain found thatevery area conquered created new dangers which inturn had to be contro lled. In all these count ries, in

Britain had to usean il1CTeasing numberof soldiers to defend its grOU1ngempire. The banleof lsandhlurana in southAfrica in 1879 UJaS a humiliatingdefeat . Britain did not expect its soldiers to bedefealed by black AfricanZulus.

147

A n Illust rated Histor y of Brita in

!I ..,'j'" ,11~n, I 11 Iu Il' .,. ~U(j :',"" of II, .,.1,

Sixty years a queen, Victoria celebrates her Diamorul Jubilee . Immediatelybehind herstandshersonandsuccessor, Edward VIr, and his own sonandsuccessor, George V, stands on his left. Victoria is acclaimed queen andempress by themanydifferent colonial peoples under herrule.

India , Afric a and elsewhere, Britain found itselfinvolved in a con tradict ion between its imperialamb ition and the liberal ideas it wished to advanceelsewhe re. G ladstone 's view th at " the foreign policyof England sho uld always be inspired by a love offreedom" seemed to have little place in th eco lon ies. In the twen tieth century thiscon tradict ion was a majo r reason for th e co llapse ofth e emp ire.

T he re was anothe r reason for the interest increat ing co lon ies. From the 1830s there had beengrowing con cern at the rap idly increasing

148

popu lati on of Brita in . A number of people calledfor the development of co lon ies for British sett lersas an obvious solut ion to the prob lem. As a result,there was marked increase in settlemen t in Ca nada,A ustra lia and Ne w Zea land from the 1840sonwards. The settlers arrived to take ove r th e landand to farm it. In all three countries th ere had beenearlier popu lations. In Canada most of these werepushed westwards, and those not killed became partof the "white" culture . In Australia British setrIerskilled most of the aborigina l inhabitan ts, leavingon ly a few in the central desert areas. In Ne wZealand the Maori inhabitants suffered less than ineithe r Ca nada or Austra lia, altho ugh they still lostmost of the land.

The white co lon ies, unlike the othe rs, were soonallowed to govern the mselves, and no lon gerdepended on Britain . They st ill, however , acceptedthe British monarch as the ir head of sta te. T hemove towards self-govern men t was the result oftro uble in Canada in 1837. A new governor , LordDurham, quickly understood th e danger tha tCanada might follow th e othe r American coloniesin to independence. His report established theprinciple of self-government, fi rst for the wh iteco lon ies, but eventually for all Brit ish possessions.It prepared the way from empi re to a British"Commonwealth of Nat ions" in th e twentiethcentury,

By the end of the ninete enth century Brita incontrolled the ocea ns and much of the land areas ofth e world. Most Brit ish strongly believed in th eirright to an empire, and were willing to defend itagainst the least threat. T h is state of mind becamekno wn as Jingoism, afte r a famous Music Hall songof 1878:

We don't want to fi ght , bu t , by jingo if we do,We've got the sh ips, we've got the men , we've

got the money too.

But eve n at this moment of greatest power , Britainhad begun to spend more on its emp ire than it rookfrom it. T he empire had sta rted to be a heavy load.It would become impossibly heavy in the twentiethcentury, when the co lonies fi nally began to demandth eir freedom.

Wales, Scotland and IrelandAs industrialisation continued, the areas at theedge of British economic power became weaker.Areas in Wales, Scotland and Ireland werepart icularly affected .

Wales had fewer proble ms tha n either Sco tland orIreland . Its popul at ion grew from ha lf a million in1800 to ove r two million by 1900. partly becausethe average expecration of life doub led from th irtyto sixty. In south Wa les the re were rich coa l mineswhich quickly became the centre of a rapidlygrowing coal and steel industry . In thei r search forwork. a huge num ber of people. between two-thirdsand three-quarte rs of the to ta l Welsh population .moved into the southeast corner of the country . By1870 W ales was main ly an industrial society.

This new working-class community. born insoutheas t Wales. became increasingly interested inNonconformist C hrist ian ity and radicalism. Itcreated its own cultural life. In many min ingvillages brass bands were created, and these quicklybecame symbols of working-class unity. Otherpeople joined the local No nconformist chapelchoir. and helped to create the We lsh tradit ion offi ne chora l singing. Wales was soon a nat iondivided bet ween the indu strialised areas and theuncha nged areas of old Wales. in the centre andnorth .

The parliamentary reforms of the nine teenthcentury gave Wales a new vo ice. As soon as theywere allowed to vote. the Wel sh workers got rid ofthe Tories and the landowning fami lies who hadrepresented them for 300 years.

Scotland was also divided between a newindustrialised area. arou nd G lasgow and Edinb urgh.and the Highland and Lowland areas. Around thetwo great cities there were coa l mines and factoriesproducing stee l and iron , as well as the centre ofthe Brit ish sh ipbuilding industry on the RiverClyde. Like Wales. Sco tland became stronglyLiberal once its workforce gained voting rights.

The clearances in the High lands continued. In thesecond half of the century it became more profitableto replace the sheep with wild deer. wh ich were

20 The yearsof self-confidence

hunted for sport . Many old clan lands were sold tonew landowners who had no previous connectionwith the Highlands. and who on ly occasiona llyvisited the ir esta tes. The Highlands have neverrecovered from th e collapse of the clan system.eithe r socially or economically. It is probable thatthe Highland areas would have beco me depopu latedanyway. as people moved away to find work in thecities. But the way in which it happen ed was notgentle . and left a bitte r memory.

T he Irish experience was worse than that ofSco tland. In the nineteenth century. an increasingnumber of Protestant Irish turned to England as aprotection against the Cat holic inhabit ants. To theC atho lics. however. most Irish Protestants were areminder that England. a foreign country. was stillas powerful in Ireland as it had been in 1690. Thestruggle for Irish freedom from English rule becamea struggle betwee n Catho lic and Protestant. Thefirst great victory for Irish freedom was whenCa tholics were allowed to become MPs in 1829. Infact in Ireland thi s decision was acco mpanied by arepression of civil and political liberties. Even so.the fact that a Catho lic could enter Parliamentincreased Irish nat ional feeling.

But wh ile this feeling was growing. Ireland sufferedthe worst disaster in its ent ire history. For threeyears. 1845. 1846 and 1847. the potato crop . whichwas the main food of the poor . failed. Since thebeginn ing of the cent ury. the population had risenquickly from fi ve to eight million . In these threeyears 1.5 million (about 20 per cent) died fromhunger. At the same time Ireland had enoughwheat to feed the ent ire population. but it wasgrown for expo rt to England by the mainl yProtestan t landowners. The government in Londonfailed to realise the seriousness of the problem .

Many Irish people had lirtle cho ice but to leave. Atleast a million left during these years. but manymore followed during the rest of the centurybecause of the great poverty in Ireland . Most settledin the United States. Between 1841 and 1920almost five million settled there. Some wenteastwards to the towns and cities of Britain . Man yhe lped to build Britain's railways.

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A n Illustrated History of Brita in

Many Sccmsh Highlanders and Irish were dritJen off {heir land in {henineteenth cemury. The Irish suffered worSI of all. Afll'T {he k'TTible POlalO

famine of 1845, therewere ocher yearsof poor hart'est, nowbly in the years/877-79, but many landlords refused to lvwer rents during {his lime. MallYfamilies, like the one shoum in this photograph, were locked out of theirhomes a.~ {hey couldno longer pay rent. Most of them made {heir way fa lheUni{ed Stares of America, wllCTe Irish Americansstill remember how theirancestors were lreated.

The Irish popul ati on has still not yet grown to thesame level. T oday it is less than five million (threemilli on in the Republic of Irelan d , 1. 5 milli on inNorthern Irelan d ), on ly a littl e more tha n halfwhat it was in 184 0. Emigrat ion from Irelan dcont inues.

The Irish who went to the United Sta tes d id notforge t th e old coun try. N or did the y forg ive Britain .By 1880 man y Irish Americans were rich andpowerful and were able to suppor t the Irish freedo mmovement. They have had an influence on Brit ishpoli cy in Irelan d eve r since.

150

Meanwh ile, C ha rles Parnell , a Prot estant Irish MP,demand ed fuller rights for the Irish people , inpart icular th e righ t to self-gove rn ment . W he n mostIrish were able to vote for the first time in 1885,eighty-s ix mem bers of Parn ell's Ir ish part y wereelec ted to Parl iament. Most Liberals supportedParne11 , but the Tories d id not and Ireland did notga in the righ t to self-gove rn ment, or "home rule",until th irt y years later. But then Brita in 's war withGermany delayed it tak ing place, and by the timethe war ended Irish nationa lists had decided theycould only win the ir freedom by figh t ing for it .

21 The end of an ageSocial and economic improvements' The importance of sport •Changes in thinking' The end of "England's summer" • The stormclouds of war

Social and economicimprovementsBetween 1875 and 1914 the condit ion of the poorin most of Brita in greatly improved as prices fell by40 per cent and real wages doub led . Life at homewas made more comforta ble. Most homes now hadgas both for heat ing and ligh tin g. As a result offalling prices and increased wages, poor familiescould eat better food, including meat, fresh milk(brought from the countryside by train) andvegetables. This greatly improved the old diet ofwhite bread and beer.

In 1870 and 1891 two Educat ion Acts were passed.As a result of these, all ch ildren had to go ro school

up to the age of thirteen, where they were taughtreadin g, writing and arithmetic. In Scotl and th erehad been a state educat ion system since the timeof the Reform ation. There were four Sco rt ishuniversit ies, three dat ing from the Middle Ages. InWales schoo ls had begun to grow rapidly in themiddle of the cent ury, partly for nationalist reasons.By the midd le of the cent ury Wales had a uni versityand a smaller un iversity college. England nowstarted to build "redbrick" universities in the newindustrial cities. The term "redbrick" distinguishedthe new universities, often brick-built , from theolder , mainl y stone-built uni versities of Oxford andC ambridge. T hese new universities were unlik eOxford and C ambridge, and taugh t more scienceand tec hno logy to feed Britain's indu stries.

Nature study in (Ill elemenwry school,1908. In 1870 if became rhe Ju.ty oflocal authorities to establishschools a ! theexpense of local rarepaym. They uereauthorised to compel auenJance. Duringthe next tuenry years schools uere builtand the attendance 0/ most. ifnor all,children achiet'ed at elementary k n{

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An Illustrated History of Brirain

The face of th e towns had greatly changed in themiddle years of the century. The organ isedimprovement of workers' homes, of factorycondit ions, public health and education had allcome fast, once the Victorians had developed theadmin istrat ive and scien tific means. Sidnev W ebb,an early socialist, amusingly described the pride ofthe new town authorities, or municipalities, whichcar ried out these cha nges:

The town counc illor will walk along th e muni ci­pal pavement , lit by munic ipal gas and cleansedby municipal brooms with muni cipal water and,seeing by the muni cipal clock in the municipalmarket , that he is too early to meet hi s ch ildrencoming from the muni cipal school .. . will usethe national telegraph system to tell them not towalk through the muni cipal park, but ... tomeet him in the municipal readin g room .

It was easy to see the physical changes such as thegrowth of towns and cities and villages. It was lesseasy to see the social changes. But in fact , powerhad moved from the sh ires to the towns. At thebeginning of the n ineteen th century the countrysquire could use his power to rule the village, sendch ildren to work in the workhouse, and enclosecommon land for his own use. By 1900 he was aharmless reminder of an ear lier age. JPs lost all th eirlocal gove rnme nt and administrative powers in1888, and could now on ly make judgements in very

small cases. New county counc ils took their place,which were made up of elect ed men and women ,with a staff of admin istrators to catty out theirdecisions, a system which still operates today.

The authority of the C hurch was also weakened. Inthe coun try, the village priest no longer had thepower he had had a century earlier. C hurches werenow half empty, because so man y peop le had goneto live in the towns, where they stopped going tochurch. By 1900 on ly 19 per cent of Londonerswent regularly to chu rch . Those who did usuallylived in richer areas. T his remains true today, whenunde r 10 per cent are regular churchgoers.

Why did the poor no longer go to church? O nereason was that th e C hurch of England offeredthem no help with the prob lems of thei r dai ly lives.Staying away from churc h was also a kind ofrebellion against th e rulin g estab lishmen t withwhich the Ch urch was st ill close ly connected. Inthe village, man y peop le had gone to churchbecause they were forced to do so by the squire,who probably employed th em. In the great cities ofindustrial Britain they were free, and they chose to

stay away.

T hey were also att racted by other ways of spendingthe ir Sundays. By th e 1880s, for the first t ime,working peop le could th ink about enjoying somefree time. Apart from museums, parks, swimming

152

The seaside became !he placewhere everyone wished to goonholiday. Different seaside towns

around the country eurcoeddifferem classes. Scarborough inYorksh ire , iUustraled here,attracted !he middle classes. Onthe westcoast Blackpool,Lancashire. attracled lowerincomefamilies.

Cricket was a gmtleman's gamein which otheTs could also joininas "playm". The divisionbetueen "gentlemen" (die rulingestablishment) and "playm" (oflower social status) was a clearS[(lternentof lhe divide betweenclasses in Briktin al die 'end of thecentury. However, cricket wasanimportant bridge betweenclasses. where respect was givenre those whoplayed well,regardless of class. It was partlyfar this reason, andalsobecauseit was a game which mixed reamwork with individual excellence,thal die game becamea symbol ofion play in national hie.Shameful behatiour in politics orin public hie""" frequenr/ydescribed in die press as "notcricket".

21 The end of an age

pools and librar ies recently opened in towns. thereal popular soc ial ce ntre remained the alehouse orpub. T housa nds of these were built in the newsuburbs.

From the middle of the cen tury man y peop le hadstarted to use the railway to get to work. No w theybegan to travel for pleasure. The work ing class wentto the new seaside holiday towns. The middle classenjoyed the countryside, or smaller seaside resortsof a more expe nsive kind . But for both, th e seasidewas a place whe re families could take holidaystogether .

The invention of the bicycle was also important.For the first time people could cycle into thecoun tryside. up to fifty miles from home . It gave anew freedo m to working-class and middle-classpeople, who met each othe r for the first time awayfrom work . More importantly. it gave young wome ntheir fi rst taste of freedom. Up till then th ey hadalways had an older woman as a companion romake sure th at nothing "happened" when rhey metmen . Now th ese young women had a means ofescape. and escape they did.

The importance of sportBy the end of the nineteenth cent ury. two sports ,cricket and footba ll. had become of great interest to

the Brit ish public. Cricket, which had started as a"gentleman' s" sport. had becom e an extremelypopular village game. Although it had fi rstdeveloped in the eighteenth century. it was notuntil a century later that its rules were organised.From 1873 a county championsh ip took place eachyear. Cricket was a game which enco uraged bothindividual and tea m excellence and taught respectfor fair play. As one Englishman said at the t ime ."We have a much greater love of cricket than ofpolitics." C ricket was successfully expo rted to theemp ire: to the West Indies, India, Pakistan.Cev lon, Australia and New Zealand. But while itwas popular in Wales. it never had the samepopularity in Sco tland .

Britain 's ot her main game. football. was alsoorgan ised with proper rules in the n ineteent hcentury. As an organised game it was at first amiddle-class or gentleman's spor t. but it quicklybecame popular among all classes. Foot ball soondrew huge crowds who came to watch the full-t imeprofession al footballers play the game. By the endof the nineteenth century almost every townbetween Portsmouth on the south coast of Englandand Abe rdeen in northeast Sco tland had its ownfootba ll, or "soccer" team. These often encouragedlocal loyalt ies. Sometimes they symbolisedsomet h ing more. In G lasgow Celt ic was suppo rtedby the thousands of Irish immigrants and ot her

153

An Illustrated H istory of Britain

Catho lics, wh ile Rangers was supported byProtestants. But at this time there was no vio lence.Crowds were well behave d. Britain also exportedfootball abroad, as young commercia l travellerstook the game with th em, part icularly to Europeand to Sout h America.

Changes in thinkingThe most important idea of the n ineteenth centurywas that eve ryone had the right to persona lfreedo m, which was the basis of capita lism. Thisidea had spread widely th rough the book Enquiryinto the Wealth of Na tions, writte n by the Scots manAdam Smith in the eightee n th century. Afte rA dam Smith, severa l capitalist eco no mists arguedthat government should not interfere in trade andindustry at all. Fewer laws, they claimed , meantmore freedom, an d freedo m for individuals wouldlead to happiness for the greatest number of people.T hese ideas were eagerly accep ted by the growingmiddle class.

However, it soon became very clear that thefreedom of factory owners to do as they pleased hadled to slave ry and misery for the poor , not tohappiness or freedom. By 1820 more and morepeople had begun to accept th e idea th atgovernment must interfere to protect the poor andthe weak. T he result was a number of laws toimprove working conditio ns. O ne of these, in1833, limited the number of hours tha t women andch ildren were allowed to work. Anothe r law th esame year abo lished slavery thro ughout the BritishEmpire. W hile th is set a new exampleinternationally, facto ry owners were quick to poin tout that while slave owne rs were compensated forthe loss of slave labour, th ey were not compensatedfor the new limit s on labour in Britain .

Such laws did hot make British factor ies perfectplaces in which to work, and many factory ownersdid their best to avo id obeying the m. But by theend of the cen tury, few people thought it waswrong for the governme nt to interfere in factoryconditions, health in towns, and education forch ildren. People now saw the se as governmentduti es.

154

As so often happens, government policy wasinfluenced by indi vidual peop le. At the beginningof the cen tury Robert Owe n, a factory owner inScotland, gave his workers shorter working hours.He built his factory in the countryside, away fromthe fog and dirt of th e cit ies, and prov ided goodhousing nearby, and educat ion for the workers'children. Owen was able to prove that h is workersproduced more in less t ime than those forced towork long hours. Owen also encouraged tradeun ions, and supported the To lpuddle Mart yrs.Oweri's ideas and example began to spread. O therreformers, like the Q uaker, Arrhur Cadbury,famous for his Birmingha m choco late factory, builtfirst-class housing for their workers.

In spite of men like Owen , improvemen ts wereslow. By the end of the century, 30 per cent of the

Mostof the poorer classes lived in unhealthy conditions in small, damp"back~to·back" houses, withfew open spaces. As the middle classes l'llOt!edOld to better suburbs, parnof the city centres became areas of poverty, Ukethis street in Newcastle in 1880.

nation was still extremely poor. It was anuncomfortable fact for the most powerful nation oneart h. Aga in, it was indi vidual peop le who led thefight against thi s problem. Wi lliam Booth sta rted anew religious movement, the Sa lvat ion A rmy, to"ma ke war" on povert y. His book In DarkesrEngland and rhe W ay 0 1<1 was a reminder that whilethe British ca lled Africa "the dark continent",areas of possibly greater "darkness" were just dow nthe road in the ir own town s.

Lite rature was influenced by the new mood ofchange . In the midd le of the century Cha rlesDicken s attacked the rich and powerful for theircruelty towards the weak and unfortun ate insoci ety. Painting too was affect ed. A ce ntury earlierit had been the great landowning aristocracy whohad bought paintings and paid art ists. In thenine teenth cent ury it was the main ly urban middleclass, and to please them, artists painted differentsubjects, such as sentimenta l scenes of thecountryside, and paintings which told a moralstory. But some painted industrial scenes whichraised questions about the new soc iety Britain hadcreated . "Pre-Raphaelire" painters looked back tothe pre-industrial mediev al and classical worldswith fresh and romant ic eyes. Later on in thecentury, many of the first socia lists in Britain werewriters or artists. Some of these belonged to th e"Arts and C rafts Mov ement", whose membersturned away from the new middle-class values, andlooked to pre-industri al handcraft and to nature forinspiration .

Above all, Victor ian society was self-confident.This had been shown in the Great Exh ibit ion in185I. British self-confidence was built not onlyupon power but also upon the rapid scientificadvances being made at the tim e. In 1857 CharlesDarwin pub lished The Origin of SIJecies. His theoryof evo lut ion, based upon scientific observat ion , waswelcomed by many as proof of mankind's ability to

find a scienti fic explanation for every th ing. But forchurchgoing people, who were mostly to be foundamong the middle classes, the idea that all an imals,including human beings, had developed from moresimple creatures shoo k th is self-confi dence and ledto a crisis in the C hurch. Most of the churchgoing

21 TIle end of an age

popula tion believed every word of the Bible. Theyfound it difficul t to accept Darwin's theory that theworld had developed over millions of years, and hadnot been created in six days in the year 4004 BC.

Even less acceptab le was the idea th at over a periodof thousands of years man had devel oped from theape. The batt le between "faith" and "reason" lastedfor the rest of the century.

There was one dan gerous result of Darwin's book.Some of those who accepted h is ideas began to talkof "advance d" and "inferior" races. These ideassoon influenced Britain's imperial policy. Seve ralEuropean countries already shared the view that forreasons of religion and "higher" ci vilisation, theycould justify th eir colon ial policy. But the idea ofrac ial or genetic superiority was a new one, fromwhich the colon ised peop les could not hope toescape. T hey could accept Ch ristianity and couldbecome "more civilised", but they could not cha ngetheir race .

Today it is diffi cult to understand how these ideascould have been accepted. But at the time th erewas Iitrle doubt among most of the British thatBritain was the most adva nced of the "advanced"races, with a duty to govern the "inferior" races.

The end of "England's summer"At the beginn ing of the twentieth century peop ledid not , of course , realise that they were livin g atthe end of an age. There was st ill a gene ral belief inthe " liberal idea" , that the nation could ach ievesteady economic and social improvement as well asdemocracy without revolution . Things for Britaincould only get better and bette r.

A growing dem and for reform led "New Libera l"governments to try to improve soc ial conditions. In1907 they provided free school mea ls, to improvethe health of Britain's ch ildren. The following yearthey starred an old age pensions scheme. It was anaston ish ing new idea that govern ment sho uldpreven t the o ld from starving or becoming home;less. In 1909 Labour Exchanges were opened , whe rethose without work cou ld look for jobs. T wo yearslater all workin g people were made to pay for"nationa l insurance". It was anothe r new idea that

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A n Illustrated History or Britain

those unable to earn money throug h sickness Ot

unemployment would be helped by the state .

T he New Liberals had begun to estab lish whatbecame the "welfare state". By doing so, they madeimportan t changes to the free capitalism of then ineteenth cent ury. Government, said the Liberals,had a du ty to pro tect the weak against the strong.As in th e gentleman ly sport of cricket , the Liberalsbelieved that even with in capitalism there had tobe "fait play".

In 1911 ano ther importa nt polit ical event occurred.The Liberal dr ive for reform , bot h in Irish politicsand in social affairs at home, was extremelyunpopular with most Conservat ives, who had amajori ty in the House of Lords. They used thi smajor ity to stop many of the bills introduced by theLiberal govem rnen r in the Commons in the years1906- 10. T he bat tle of wills between the twoHouses produced a crisis when the Liberals tried toint roduce a new budget in 1909 which was in­tended to increase th e taxes paid by the rich ,part icular ly the large landowners. The Lords turneddown the new budget . T he new king, George V,put an en d to the crisis by warn ing that he wou ldcreate enough new Liberal lords to give the Liberalsa majori ty. The Lords gave in. O ne result of thedispute was that taxation was increasingly seen as asoc ial matter as well as an economic one.

T he crisis, howeve r, was not on ly about mon ey,or about reform. T he re was a const itut iona ldisagreement. The Conservatives still favoured atwo-house parliamentary system, but they nowrecognised that the Lords would have to bechanged. The Liberals wanted one strong house,with the powers of the Lords so weakened that itcould not prevent the will of the Commons frombein g carried out. T he result of th is const itut ionaldebate was the Parliament Act of 1911. Like muchof Brit ish political developmen t it resulted from acompromise , but one in which the Liberals wonmost of what they wanted. The House of Lords lostits right to quest ion financial legislat ion passed inthe Co mmons. Its powers in all other matters werelimited. It could no longer prevent legislation butonly delay it, and for not more than two years. T hesystem st ill operates.

156

In the same year, for the fi rst t ime, the Commonsagreed that MPs sho uld be paid. T h is was a farmore important step than it might seem, for itmeant that men of low income could now becomeMPs. In 1906 a new "Labour" part y had man agedto get twenty-n ine representat ives elected to Parlia­ment. It was clear to even the most conservat ive­minded that socialists should work inside theparliamentary system rat her than outside it . Thedangers of poli tical evolution were far less thanthose of revolu t ion .

T he storm clouds of warBy the end of the century it had beco me clear thatBritain was no longe r as powerful as it had been . In1885 a book ent itled England noted "we have cometo occ upy a position in which we are no longerprogressing, but even falling back ... We fi ndother nations able to compete with us to an extentsuch as we have never before experienced. " InEurope Germa ny was now united and had becomevery strong. Its economic prospects were clearl ygreate r th an Brit ain 's. Like th e USA it wasproducing more steel than Britain , and it used thisto build strong industries and a strong navy.

Why did Britain lose the advantages it had overother countr ies at the t ime of the G reat Exhibitionof 1851? There seem to be a number of reasons.O ther countries, Germany part icularly, had greaternatural wealth , includi ng coa l and iron , and wheat­producin g lands. Most Brit ish people invested theirmoney abroad rather than in building up homeindustry. British workers produced less than thosein othe r countr ies, and Britain was beh ind othercountries in science and techno logy. as well as inmanagement skills, and did litrle to cha nge th is.Public schools, the private system of educati on forthe rich er midd le class, did not encourage businessor scientific studies. Britain had nothing to comparewith the scientifi c and techni cal educat ion ofGermany. Finally, the working class, used to lowpay for long hours, did not feel th ey were partnersin manufacture.

The balance of power in Europe that had worked sowell since W aterloo was beginning to collapse. The

British believed that the long period of peace hadbeen the result of Britain's author ity in worldaffairs. T his author ity came from Brita in' s imperia land econom ic power. By 1880 the British merch antfl eet was four time s larger than it had been in 1847,when it was already the world leader. More thantwo out of eve ry th ree tons of shipping passingthrough the Suez Cana l was British . By 1880, too,Britain led the world in teleg raphiccommunications, with lines to almost eve ry part ofthe world . London was beyond doubt the centre ofthe growing international financial system. But inspite of such th ings, Brita in found that Germany,France and the USA were increasingly competingwith her. Britain was not used to being so stronglychallenged .

Sudden ly Britain realised that it no longer ruled theseas qu ite so assuredly, and that others had morepowerful armies and more powerful industries. As aresult of the growth of intern ational trade Britainwas less self-sufficient , and as a result of growing USand German compet it ion started to trade more withthe less developed and less competit ive world. T h isexperience increased its sense of politicaluncerta inty . Britain had been surprised and shoc kedby the way in which almost the whole of Europehad taken the part of the Boers against Britainduring the South African war, 1899 - 1902. It was asharp reminder tha t friendship in Europe didmatte r, and that Britain was no longer able topersuade ot he r count ries how to behave in quite thesame way that it had fifty years earlier . It had toreach agreement with them . Between 1902 and1907 Brita in made treat ies or understandings offriendsh ip with France, Japan and Russia. It failedto reach agreement with the Ottoman Empire, andwith the country it feared most, Germany.

The danger of war wirh Germany had been clearfrom the beginning of the century, and it was thi swhich had brought Franc e and Britain together.Brita in was particularly frightened of Ge rmany'smodern navy, which seemed a good dea l strongerthan its own. Th e gove rnment started a programmeof building batt lesh ips to make sure of its strengthat sea. The reason was simple. Britain could notpossibly survive for long without food and other

21 The end of an age

essential goods reaching it by sea. From 1908onwards Britain spent large sums of money to makesure that it possessed a stronger fleet than Germany.Britain 's army was small, but its size seemed lessimportant than its qualit y. In any case, no onebelieved that war in Europe, if it happen ed, wouldlast more than six months.

By 1914 an extreme ly dangerous situation haddeveloped. Germany and Austri a-Hungary hadmade a military alliance . Russia and France,frightened of German ambitions, had made onealso. Although Britain had no treaty with France,in pract ice it had no choice but to stand by Franceif it was attacked by Germany.

A dreadful cha in of events took place. In July 1914Austria-Hungary decla red war on its neighbourSerbia following the murder of a sen ior Austr ianArchduke in Sarajevo. Because Russia hadpromised to defend Serbia, it declared war onAustria- Hu ngary. Because of Germany's promise tostand by Austria-Hungary, Russia also found itselfat war with Germany. France , Russia's allv,immediately made its troops ready, recognising thatth e events in Serbia would lead inevitably to warwith Germany. Britain st ill hoped that it would notbe dragged into war, but realised on ly a miraclecou ld prevent it. No miracle occurred.

In August 1914 Germany's attack on France tookits army th rough Belgium. Brita in immediatelydeclared war becau se it had promised to guaranteeBelgium's neutrali ty by the treaty of 1838. ButBritain went to war also because it feared thatGermany's ambitions, like Napoleon's ove r acentury earlier , wou ld completely change the mapof Europe. In parti cular Britain could not allow amajor enemy power to control the Low Countries.Gazing sadly across St [ames's Park from his roomin the Fore ign Office, Sir Edward Grey, the ForeignSecretary, remarked , "T he lamps are going out allove r Europe. We shall not see them lit again in ourlifetime." In a sense the "lamps" went out for ever.For what neither Bri tain , nor Ge rmany, nor anyoneelse realised was that after the war no one , not eventhe winners, would be able to return to life as it hadbeen before.

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158

The twentieth century22 Britain at war

The First World War · The rise of the Labour Party · The rights ofwomen· Ireland· Disappointment and depression· The Second W orldWar

At the sta rt of th e twentieth century Britain wasst ill the greatest world power. By the middle of thecentury , althoug h st ill one of th e "Big Three" ,Brita in was clearly weaker th an either th e Un itedStates or the Soviet Union. By th e end of theseven ties Britain was no longer a world power at

all, and was not eve n among the richest Europeanpowers. Its power had ended as qu ick ly as Spain 'shad done in th e seven teen th century.

O ne reason for this sudden decline was th e cost andeffort of two world wars. Another reason was th ecost of keeping up the empi re, followed by theeconomic prob lems involved in losing it. But themost important reason was the basic weaknesses inBritain 's industrial power, and particu larly its failureto spend as much as other industrial nations indeveloping its industry.

Now, near th e end of th e century, Brirain has lostmuch of its earlier self-confidence ; but no one issure wha t the reason s for this are. Some argue tha tthe work force is lazy, or that the trade unions are

An adt't.'Tfisemm r{or the London Undt.7gmund' in 1908 offersrhe lu 't'l'l tierh.cenlllry dream {11f Tl'4tny Brilish pe:ople. As the " lithe" reached 0 141 inro [heCVllntT'\'Side. ncu ' suburbs were fmilf. Here, so the ,!dt.-erlisemetlf S I~~e5 [ed . a

family'could litre in a suburban house in rhe " mock" Tudur $rylc, Hfj&estit1e

of a JXl~1 age of 11(//;0 11£11 gJUT)' , with their OWTl gilTden. The husband waterstheIll/wm. while his wife and chilJ In-cpare wuol{m knitting. It is a scenedUll suggem burn Jomestic happiness and alsoa miJJle-cl.:.Iss prot>eTfy-owningdemccracv. If is an extreme/" cleverad l'eTtlsemem. for it has")SI non e of itsappeal eighty years !mer. .

too powerfu l, or that there are not eno ugh goodmanagers. Others blame th e immigrants who havesertled in Britain from the old co lonies since th eSecond World War. No one doubts th at Britain isliving in an age of uncertainty.

Britain st ill h as some valuab le adva ntages. T hediscovery of oil in the North Sea has rescued thenation from a situa t ion that might have been farworse. And in electronics and rechnology Britain isst ill a world compet ito r.

A nation 's story is not , or sho uld not be, solelyabout wealth or power, but abo ut the qua lity of thecommun ity's existence. Britain 's loss of power neednot damage that qua lity, un less thi s is measuredonly in material te rms.

The First World WarGermany nearly defeated the A llies, Brirain andFrance, in th e first few weeks of war in 1914 . It hadbetter trained soldiers, better equipment and a clearplan of attack. The Frenc h army and the smallBritish force were fortuna te to hold back theGerman army at the River Marne, deep insideFrance. Four years of bit ter fighti ng followed, botharmies living and fighting in the trenches, wh ichth ey had dug to protect th eir men.

Apart from the C rimean War, this was Brita in'sfirst European war for a cen tury, and th e country

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An Illustrated History of Britain

The auifuJness of war: oneof Britain's 750, ()(X)dead in the First WorldWar.

was qu ite unprepared for the terribl e destructi vepower of modern weapo ns. At first all those whojoined the army were volunteers. But in 1916 thegovernment forced men to join the army whetherthey wanted to or not . A few men , mainl yQuakers, refused to fight. For the first t ime, agovernment accepted th e idea that men had theright to refuse to fight if they believed fightin g to bewrong. But the war went on, and the nu mber ofdeaths increased. O n 1 July 1916 Britain attackedGerman posit ions on th e River Somme. By theevening it had lost 20,000 dead and 40,000wounded. In fact, five months of fighting from 1July 1916 cost Britain 400,000, France 200 ,000 andGermany 500,000 dead and wounded. AtPasschendaele, the following year, the British armyadvanced five miles at the cost of anothe r 400, 000dead and wounded. Modern art illery and machineguns had completely cha nged the nature of war.The invention of the tank and its use on thebattlefield to brea k thro ugh the ene my tren ches in1917 cou ld have changed the course of the war. It

160

would have led to fewer casualties if its militaryvalue had been properly understood at the time.

In the Middle East the British fough t againstTurkish troops in Iraq and in Palestine , and atGa llipoli, on th e Dardanelles. There, too, therewere many casualties, but many of them werecaused by sickness and heat. It was not until 1917th at the British were really able to drive back theTurks.

Somehow the govern ment had to persuade thepeople th at in spite of such disastrous results rhewar was st ill worth fighting. The nation was toldtha t it was defending the weak (Belgium) againstthe strong (Germany), and that it was figh tin g fordemocracy and freedom.

At th e same time popular newspapers, using largeprint, memorable sho rt sentences and emotionallanguage, encouraged the nation to hate Ge rmany,and to want Germany's destruction. Na tiona lfeelings were even stronger in France, wh ich hadalready been badly defeated by Germany in 1871.As a result, when Germany offered to make peaceat the end of 1916, neither the British nor th eFrench gove rnment welcomed the idea. Both wereprisoners of the public feelin gs they had helped to

create.

The war at sea was more important than the war onland, because defeat at sea would have inevitablyresulted in British surrender. From 1915 Germansubmarines started to sink merch ant sh ips bringingsupp lies to Britain. At the battle of Jutland, in1916 , Admiral Jellicoe successfully drove theGe rman fleet back into harbour. At the time it wassaid , with some truth, that Admiral Jellicoe was theon ly man on either side who could have lost thewar in a single afternoon . If Germany's navy haddestroyed the British fl eet at Jutland, Germanywould have gained con trol of th e seas aroundBritain , forcing Britain to surrender. In spite of thispart ial victory German submarines managed to sink40 per cent of Britain 's merch ant fleet and at onepoint brought Britain to with in six weeks ofstarvat ion. Whe n Russia , following the Bolshevikrevolution of 1917 , made peace with Ge rmany, theGe rman gene rals hoped for victory against the

Allies. But German submarine attacks on neutralsh ipping drew America into the war againstGermany. The arrival of American troops in Franceended Germany's hop es, and it surrendered inNovember 1918.

By this time Britain had an army of over fivemillion men, but by this time over 750,000 haddied, and ano ther two million had been seriouslywounded. About fifty tim es more people had diedthan in the twenty-year war again st Napo leon .Public opin ion demanded no mercy for Germany.

In this atmosphere, France and Britain met todiscuss peace at Versailles in 1919. Germany wasnot invited to the conference, but was forced toaccept its puni shment, which was extremely severe.T he most famous British econo mist of the t ime,Joh n Maynard Keynes, argued that it was foolish topuni sh the German s, for Europe 's econo mic andpolit ical recov ery could not take place withoutthem. But his adv ice was not accepted.

Apart from hatred of Germany, there was greatsorrow for the dead. T he destruct ion had beenterrible. As one young soldier wrote shor tly beforehe him self died , "Everywhere the work of God isspoiled by the hand of man. " Wives had lost thei rhusbands, ch ildren had lost their fathe rs, parentshad lost the ir sons. It was natural for a nation inthe se c ircumstances to persuade itself that the warhad somehow been worth it. Those who died inbattle have been remem bered ever since in thesewords:

They shall grow not old, as we that are left growold:

Age sha ll not weary them, nor the yearscon demn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morningWe wi11 remember them.

"For the Fallen"I Laurcnce Binyon 1869-1 943

T here was also anger about the stupidity of war,best expressed by Britain 's "war poets". As the mostfamous of th em , Wil fred Owen, wrote , shortlybefore he h imself died on the battlefield, "Mysubject is War, and the pity of War." T he poemswritten by young poet-soldiers influenced public

2Z Britain at war

opin ion , persuading many that the war had been anact against God and man. "Never again" was thefeeling of the nation when it was all ove r.

When peace came there were great hopes for abetter future . T hese hopes had been created by thegovernment itself, which had made too manypromises abo ut impro ved conditions of life forsoldiers returning from the war. As soon as the warhad ended, the government started a bigprogramme of building home s and improving healthand education . But there was far less progress th anpeople had been led to hope for.

The rise of the Labour PartyAn important politica l devel opment during the warwas the rapid growth of th e Labour Part y. Althoughit was formally established in 1900, its begin ningsdated from 1874, as part of the trade unionmovement. The trade unions themselves had grownenormously, from two million members to fivemill ion by 1914, and eight million by 1918. In th atyear, for the first time , all men aged twenty-oneand some women ove r th irty were allowed to vote.The num ber of voters doubled from eight to sixteenmillion people, most of whom belonged to theworking class.

As a result of th ese changes, the Labour Part y,which had won twenty-nine seats in the 1906elec tion , won fifty-seven seats in 1918, 142 seats in1922, and 191 seats in 1923. The following yearthe first Labour governmen t was created. TheLabour Party, however, was not "socialist". Itsleaders were , or had becom e, members of themiddl e classes. Instead of a socia l revolut ion , theywanted to develop a kind of socialism that would fitthe situat ion in Brita in. T his was partly becauseLabour's leaders did not wish to frighten the voters.It was also because middle-class thinkers before thewar had almost complete ly failed to interest thework ing class in socia list ideas. In fact Kart Marx,who spent most of his life in Britain studying andwriting, was almost unknown except to a fewfriends. Both he and his close friend FriedrichEngels, who owned a factory in Manch ester, had

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An Illustrated History of Britain

littl e hope of the British working classes becomingtruly socialist. In 1885 Enge ls had written of thetrade unioni sts: "The foo ls want to reform socie tyto suit themselves , but not reform the mselves tosuit the development of society." Most working­class people wished to improve the ir fi nancialsituation and to enjoy the adva ntages of the middleclass witho ut becoming involved in soc ialist beliefs.T he trade unions and the Labour movemen t hadbeen shaped by the experiences of th e nineteenthcentury. T hey did not believe th ey co uld bringdown the existing form of government, and in anycase they wanted to change things by acce ptedconstitutional means, in Parliamen t. This waspartly because they were suppor ted not onl y by theworking class but also by rad icals already inParliament.

By 1914 the soc ialist Beatrice Webb could write:"The landslide in England towards social democracyproceeds stead ily, but it is the who le nation that issliding, not one class of manual workers." Thatslide has continued for most of th is century. As aresult, the effect on Brita in of the 1917 Bolshev ikrevo lution in Russia was not as great as many fearedit would be . Eno ugh people were interested inMarxism to establish a Communist Party, but th eLabour Party firmly refused to be connected with it .However, Marxism stirred a deep-seated fear in theConservat ive Party, wh ich has contin ued to seeevidence of Marxist Soc ialism behi nd the LabourParty, the trade unions and strike act ion.

As a result of Labour 's success in 1924 , the Libera lParty almost comp letely disappeared. Liberals withtrad it iona l cap ita list ideas on the eco no my joinedthe Conserva tive Party , while most Libera l"reformers" joined the Labour Party.

The rights of womenIn 1918 , some women over the age of thirty gainedth e right to vote afte r a lon g, hard struggle. Joh nStuarr Mill , a radical th inker, had triedunsuccess fully to include votes for women in the1867 Refor m Bill. The industri al revo lut ion hadincreased the power of men, and th eir feelingsabout prope rty . Karl Marx noti ced th at the factory-

162

owni ng Englishman's attitude of "chivalry" towomen had not prevented them from forcingwomen to work like slaves in the ir fact or ies andworkhouses.

A man thought of h is wife and daughters as hisproperty, and so did the law. It was almostimpossible for women to get a divorce, eve n forth ose rich eno ugh to pay the legal costs. Until1882, a woma n h ad to give up all her prope rty toher husband when she married him. And until1891 , husbands were still allowed by law to beattheir wives with a stick "no thicker than a man'sth umb", and to lock them up in a room if theywished. By 1850, wife beating had become a serioussocial prob lem in Brita in . Men of all classes wereab le to take sexua l advantage of work ing wome n.Women were probably treated worse in Brita in thanin any ot her industrialising European country atth is time.

After 1870 the situation, particu larly for middl e­class women , began to improve. Women wereallowed to vote and to be elected to boro ugh orcounty counc ils. A very small num ber started tostudy at Oxford and Cambridge in separate women'sco lleges. But whi le they were allowed to follow thesame course of study as men, they cou ld not receivea degree at the end. Middle-class wome n becameincreasingly det ermined to have equa l rights .

Work ing~class women were more interested in theirlegal rights concern ing working condit ions, andthey found support in the trade union movement.In 1888 the policy of the un ions was th at "wherewomen do the same work as men, they sho uldreceive equa l pay". It was nearly ano the r centurybefore this princ iple beca me law. Femalemem bership of the unions increased, but it was notalways easy to persuade working men to respect theequal rights of thei r wives, part icularly in times ofunemployment.

In 1897 women sta rted to demand the righ t to votein nationa l elections. W ithi n ten years th esewomen, the "suffragettes", had become famous forthe extreme meth ods they were willing to use.Many po lit icians who agreed with the ir aims wereshoc ked by their violent meth ods and stopped

Suffragettes arrested af!er "auacking" Buckingham Palace, May 1914.Suffragettes caused great feelings of lwstility by their lawless acts , bUI theybelieved that il was onlyby acting in SIKh a way thal they couldgain theattention of the nation. The First Warld War interrupted their campaign.

supporting them. However, if they had not beenwilling to shock the public, the suffragettes mightnot have succeeded.

The war in 1914 changed everyth ing. Britai n wouldhave been unable to continue the war with out thewomen who took men 's places in the factories. By191 8 29 per cen t of the to tal workforce of Britainwas female. Wo men had to be given the vote . Butit was not until ten years later that the voting ageof women came down to twenty-one, equal withmen.

The liberat ion of women took other forms. T heystarted to wear lighter cloth ing, sho rter hait andskirts, began to smoke and drink ope nly, and towear cosmetics. Married women wanted smallerfamilies, and divorce became easier, rising from ayearly ave rage of 800 in 1910 ro 8,000 in 1939.Undoubtedly many men also moved away fromVicto rian values. Leading writers like D. H.Lawrence , Aldous Hux ley, l ames [ovce andVirgin ia Woolf freely discussed sexua l and ot he rsensitive matters, which would have beenimpossible for earlier generations.

Once women could vote, many people felt tha tthey had gained full and equal rights. But there wasst ill a long battle ahead for equal treatment andrespect bo th at work and at home. The struggle forfull women's righ ts is one of the most impo rtantevents in recent British social h istory, and itseffects continue to be felt.

22 Britain at war

IrelandBefore the beginning of the First World War theBritish government had agreed to home rule forIreland. It was afraid, however, that the Protestantsin the north would sta rt a civil war in U lster ifhome rule was introduced. For this reason , whenwar began in 1914 , the government delayed theintroduct ion of home rule, and called on Irishmento join the army. Many thousa nds did , encouragedby their MPs, who hoped th at thi s show of loyaltywould help Ireland win self-government when thewar ended.

There was ano ther group of Irishmen, however ,who did not see why they should die for the British ,who had treared Ireland so badly. They did notonly want home rule, but full independence . AtEaster 19 16, these republicans rebelled in Dublin.T hey knew they cou ld nor win, but they hopedthe ir rising would persuade ot he r Irishmen to jointhe tepubli can movement. The "Easte r Rising" wasquickly put down, and most Irish disapproved of it .But the British executed all the leaders, wh ich wasa serious mistake . The pub lic was shocked, not on lyin Ireland, but also in London. Irish Am ericanswere also angry, just at the moment when Americahad joined Britain in the war against Germany.

In the 1918 elections the tepublicans won in almostevery area except Ulster. Instead of joining theBrit ish parliament, however , they met in the ir ownnew parl iament, the Dail in Dublin , andannounced that Ireland was now a republic.Irishmen joined the republic' s army, and guett illafighting against the British began. As a result theBrit ish government dec ided to make peace. In 1921it agreed to the independence of southe rn Ireland.But it also insisted that U lster, or Northe rn Irelandas it became known, sho uld remain uni ted withBritain.

The Angle-Irish Treat y of 1921 led to civil warbetween the Irish the mselves. By th is treaty thenew "Irish Free State" accepted continued Britishuse of certa in ports, the sovereignty of the BritishCrown, and most important of all, the loss ofNo rthern Ireland, wh ich remain ed under Britishcontrol. The pro-T reaty forces won, and the

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An Illustrated History of Britain

repu blicans, who insisted that all Ireland, includingNor thern Ireland , should be an independentrepubli c, were defeated. But a group of republi cansformed a new party, Fianna Fail, wh ich won theelection of 1932 and the new Prime Min ister,Eamon de Va leta, began to undo th e T reaty and in1937 declared southe rn Ireland a republic. TheBritish Crown was now no longer sovereign inIreland.

Irelan d and Brita in today find themselves in thestra nge posit ion of being ent irely separa te states ,but by agreement their cit izens are not consi deredforeigners in one another's coun try. W ith in theRepublic of Ireland th e majori ty have continued robelieve that all Ireland sho uld one day be united ,but without the use of force . A minority, however,has remained since 1921 ready and willing to useviolent means to achieve a uni ted Ireland.

Disappointment and depressionThe men who had fought in such terr ibleconditions dur ing th e war had been promised a land"fit for heroes". But this promise could no t easily bekept , even by the popular new Labour Party.

Alongside the social effects of the war were far­reachi ng economic ones . T he cost of the war hadled to an enormous increase in taxation, from 6 percent of income in 1914 to 25 per cent in 1918. T hedema nds of the war had also led to a doubling inthe size of the civil service, and greate r governmentcontrol of nationa l life. It was inevitable that the reshould be increasing disagreement between workersand the government. Just before the war in 1914there had been an outb reak of str ikes. Immediatelyafte r the war there were further serious str ikes, andin 19 19 and 192 1 soldiers were used to break th esestr ikes, and force men back to work.

In 1926 discontent led to a general strike by allworkers. T he reasons for th e str ike werecomplicated, but the immediate cause was acoa lminers ' strike. An earlier min ers' strike in 1921had been defeated and the men had returned towork bitterly disappointed with the mine owne rs'terms. In 1925 mine owners cur miners' wages and

164

anot her miners' strike seemed inevitable. Fearingthat thi s would seriously damage the economy, thegovernment made plans to make sure of continuedcoa l supplies. Both sides, the government and theTrades Union Congress (represen ting the miners inthis case), found themselves unwilling ly driven intoopposing positions, wh ich made a general str ikeinevit able. It was not what the T UC had wanted,and it proved deeply damaging to everyo neinvolved.

T he gene ral str ike ended afte r nine days, part lybecause members of the middle classes worked tokeep services like transport, gas and electr icitygoing. But it also ended because of uncertaintyamong the trade union leaders. Most feared thedangers bot h to the ir workers and the country of"going too far" . The miners struggled on alone andthen gave up the strike. Many worke rs, espec iallythe miners, believed that the police, whose job wasto keep the law, were actually fight ing againstthem. W hether or not th is was true, many peopleremembered rhe general str ike with great bitte rness.These memories influenced thei r opi nion ofemp loyers, government and the police for half acentury.

It is possible to argue that Britain missed anopportunity to reform the economic struct ure of thecountry after the war. But instead of carefulplanning, businessmen were allowed to make quickprofits, particularly in the cotton mills, thesh ipyards and enginee ring industries. But perhapsthere was littl e the government could do to controlthe situation, as it was not in control of economicforces. A ll over Europe and America a seriouseconomic crisis, known as lithe depression", wastak ing place. It affected Brita in most severely from1930 to 1933, when over three million workerswere unemployed.

In Germany the depression was eve n more severe,and it destroyed Britain's second most importan tmarket from before the war. John Maynard Keynes'swarn ing - tha t if Germany did no t recover thenneither would its Europea n trad ing partners­became horribly true. Far worse, th e econom iccollapse of Ge rmany led to the rise of Adolf Hitler.

Because the worst effects of the depression inBritain were limited to certain areas, thegovernment did not take the situat ion seriouslyenough . The areas most affected by the dep ressionwere those which had created Britain's industr ialrevolu tion , includin g C lvdeside, Belfast , theindustrial north of England and southeast Wa les.The working class in these areas st ill lived in poorcondit ions. Men and women could not expect tolive as long as peop le in richer areas, and morebabies died in the first year of life. There was littlehope for these peop le because almost no one waswilling to invest the large amounts of moneyneeded to get industry working again . The LabourPart y was no bette r at dealing with the situationthan the Conservatives.

It is surprising that Britai n avo ided a seriouspolitical crisis in the I920s. The unfa irness of thesituation was so obvious to working-class peop le ,who had neither political nor economic power.Two-th irds of the wealth of the nation was in theha nds of on ly 400,000 peop le, less than I per centof the popu lation. In other European count rieseconomic crisis and social unrest had led to greatchanges. In Russia there had been th e Bolshevikrevolution . Powerful new Nazi and Fascistgovernments were taking over in Germany, Italy,Austria and Spai n, wh ile France also faced polit icalcrisis. Britain's reasonably ca lm polit ical life wasproof of an asto n ishing level of popu lar agreemen tabout the basis of govern ment which did not seemto exist in many parts of Europe.

In the 1930, the British economy started to

recove r, especially in the Midlands and the south.This could be seen in the enormous number ofsmall houses which were being bui lt along mainroads far int o the countryside.

T h is new kind of deve lopment depended onBritain's growing mo tor industry, which was basedin the Mid lands. In the nineteenth century, townshad been cha nged by the build ing of new homesneat the railway. No w the country around thetow ns changed as many new houses were builtalong main roads suitable for motor ing. Middle­class peop le moved out even further to quieter new

22 Britain at war

The despair of unemployment. This line photograph is simply rntitled "SCTeeLscene in Wigan". InLancashire clogs were soU the wualfooLwear for theworkingclass until after the SecondWorldWar.

suburbs, each of wh ich was likely to have its ownshops and a cinema. Unplanned suburbs grewespec ially quickly around London , where theund erground railway system, the "tube", had spreadout into th e country. It seemed as if everyone 'sdream was to live in suburbia.

Economic recovery resulted partly from the dangerof ano the r war. By 1935 it was clear that Germany,und er its new leader Ad olf Hitler , was preparing toregain its position in Europe , by force if necessary.Britain had done nothing to increase its fightingstrength since 19 18 because pub lic op in ion inBritain had been against war. The govern mentsudden ly had to rebuild its armed forces, and thismeant investin g a large amount of money in heavyindustry. By 1937 British indu stry was produ cingweapo ns, aircraft and equipment for war, with thehelp of mone y from the Un ited States.

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The Second World WarThe peopl e of Britai n watched anxiously as Germa ncontro l spread ove r Europe in th e 1930s. But somehad foreseen th is dangerous situation, T heybe lieved th at the reasons for German expansioncou ld be found in rhe h arsh peace term s forced onGerma ny by the A llies in 1919 , and the failure toinvolve it in the post-war political settleme nt. In1920 the A llies had crea ted rhe League of Nat ionswh ich , it was hoped, would ena ble nati ons to co­operate with eac h other. A lthough the League didnot forbid war, its membe rs agreed to respect andpreserve the borders and terri tor y of all othe rmembers . But in 1935 Ita ly in vaded Abyss inia(Ethiopia), a fellow member of th e League. Britainand France were anxious to win Italy's co-operationaga inst H itle r, who was illegally rearmingGerma ny, and th erefore decid ed aga inst takingac tion against Italy as the rules of th e Leaguerequired them to do. T his failure to use th eLeague's authority had serious resul ts. Italy's Fascistleader, Ben ito Mussolini, and Hitler rea lised tha tBrita in and France lacked the will to make sure thesta ndards the League deman ded of its memb ers werefollowed.

For th e next four years Germany, Italy and theirally in the Far East , Japan , too k advantage of th isweakness to seize territory of interest to them .T he re was good evidence tha t th e de mands ofGermany co uld not be satisfied. But in order toavo id war in 1938 , the British Prime Min ister,Neville C hamberla in , accepted and co-operated inthe takeover of German-speaking parts ofCzec hos lovak ia by Germany . C ha mberlain ret urne dfrom meeting Hitler in Mun ich. He reassuredBritain that he had Hi tler's written promise tha tGermany had no more terri torial ambitions, in thememorable words, "peace for our time". Six monthslater Germany occ upied th e rest of Czechos lovakia.Britain, realising that war was inevitable, gave aguarantee of support to Poland if Germa ny in vaded.

C hamberlain was wide ly blamed for his"appeasement" of Germany. But he exp ressed th efeelings of many peo ple in Britain , to avo id war atall costs . As one of his opponents, Ernest Bevin ,

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generously said in 194 1, "If anyone asks me whowas respons ible for th e British po licy leadin g up tothe war, I will , as a Labour man myself, make theconfession and say, 'All of us. ' We refusedabso lutely to face the facts ."

In Septembe r 1939 Germany in vaded Poland, andBrita in entered the war. T he British felt again thatth ey were fighting for the weaker nati ons of Europe,and for democracy. T hey had also heard abo ut th ecruel ty of the Nazis from Jews who had esca ped toBritain.

Few people rea lised how stro ng th e German armywas. In May 1940 it attacked, defeating the Frenchin a few days, and driv ing the Brit ish army into thesea. At Dun kirk, a sma ll Frenc h port, th e Britisharmy was saved by thousands of priva te boat s whichcrossed the English channe l. Dunkirk was amiraculous rescue from military disaster, andBrita in's new Prime Minister, W inston C hurchi ll,persuaded the nation that it was a victory ofcourage and determination at Britain's darkesthour . A ltho ugh the army had lost almost all itsweapons in Fran ce, C hurch ill to ld the nation therecou ld be no though t of surrender or peacenegotiation: "we shall defend our island, whateverthe cost may be, we sha ll fight on th e beaches, wesha ll fight on the landing groun ds, we shall figh t inthe fields and in the stree ts, we sha ll figh t on thehill s; we sha ll never surre nder . . . . unt il in God'sgood t ime th e New World, with all its power andmight , sets fort h to the liberation and rescue of theO ld." A nd he offered his countrymen nothing but"blood, toil, tears and sweat. II

Everyone in Britai n expected Germa ny to invade,but the Brit ish air force won an important battl eaga inst German planes in the air over Brit ain . This,however , d id no t preve nt th e German air forcefrom bomb ing th e town s of Britain. A lmost oneand a half million people in London were madehom eless by Germa n bombing during the next fewmonths. O nce again C hurch ill brillian t ly managedto persuade a nation "on its knees" that it wouldst ill win.

The war had begun as a tradi tional Europeanstruggle, with Britain figh ting to save th e "balance

Z2 Britai n at war

Winston Churchill at his desk,March 1944.

of power" in Europe, and to cont rol the AtlanticOcean and the sea surrounding Britain . But th e warquickly became worldw ide. Both sides wanted tocontrol the oil in th e Middle East , and the SuezCanal, Britain's rout e to India. In 1941 Japan,Germany's ally, artacked British colon ialpossessions, including Malaya (Malaysia) , Burmaand India. As a result , Britain used soldiers from allparts of its empire to help fight against Ge rmany,Italv and Japan. But the weakn ess of Britain wasobvious to the whole world when its armysurrendered Singapo re to Japan , described byChurch ill as the worst surrender in Brirish h istory.

In 1941 Germany and Japan had made two mistakeswhich undoubtedly cosr them the war. Germanyattacked the Soviet Union, and Japan attacked theUnired States, both quite une xpectedly. Whateverthe advantages of surprise attack, the Axis ofGermany, Italy and Japan had now forced onto thebattlefield two of the most powerful nations in theworld.

Britain could not possibly have defeated Germanywithout the help of its stronger allies, the SovietUnion and th e United States. By 1943 the Sovietarmy was pushing th e Germans out of the USSR,and Britain had driven German and Italian troopsout of North Africa. Italy surrendered quicklyfollowing Allied landings in July 1943. In 1944

Britain and the United States invaded German­occupied France. They had already started to bombGe rman towns, causing greater destruction thanany war had ever caused before. Such bombing hadvery doubtful military results. Dresden , apart icularly beautiful eighteent h-century city, andmost of its 130,000 inhabitants, were destroyed inone night early in 1945. In May 1945, Germanyfinally surrendered. In order to save furthercasualties among th eir own troops, Britain and theUnited States then used the ir bombing power todefeat Japan. This t ime they used the new atomicbombs to destroy most of Nagasaki and Hiroshima,two large Japane se cities. Over 110,000 people diedimmediately and many tho usands more died laterfrom the afte r-effects.

It was a terr ible end to the war, and an equallyterri ble beginning to the post-war world . But at thetime there was great relief in Britain th at th e warhad finally ended. It had lasted longer than theFirst World War, and although less th an half asmany British troops had died thi s time, the figuresof over 303,000 soldiers and 60,000 civilians in airraids was a very heavy price to pay for the mistakesof the inter-war years. The Soviet Union , Germanyand Japan paid a fair more terrible price, as didethnic groups like the Jewish and gypsy people s,several million of whom were deliberately killed.

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23 The age of uncertaintyThe new international order' The welfare state' Youthful Britain ' Apopular monarchy · The loss of empire ' Britain, Europe and the UnitedStates' Northern Ireland· Scotland and Wales' The years ofdiscontent· The new politics' Britain: past, present and future

The new international orderDuring rhe war the Allies had sta rted to think ofways in which a new world order could replace thefailed League ofN'a tions. Even before it joined th ewar against the Ax is powers, the United States hadagreed an "Atlantic C harter" with Britain . Thebasis of thi s new cha rter was US PresidentRoosevelt's "Four Freedoms'': freedom of speechand expression ; freedom of worsh ip; freedom fromfear; and freedom from want.

At the end of the war the victor ious A llies creat edthe United Na tions , which expressed the ideas ofth e Atlantic Cha rter. The Allies formed themselvesinto a "Security Co unci l", into which they invitedsome less powerful nations. They hoped that thesuccess of wartime alliance could be carried int opeacetime. But thi s depended on a continuingfeeling of common purpose, which no longerexisted. T he idea of the four allies (Soviet Union,Un ited States, France and Britain) workingtogether for the recovery of central Europecollapsed. Europe becam e divided into two, theeastern part under co mmunist Soviet co ntrol, thewestern part under a capita list system protected byUS power.

In 1948- 9 the Sovier Union tried to capture W estBerl in by stopping all road and rail traffic to it , andir was on ly saved by a huge airlift of essentialsupplies from the W est , wh ich lasted almosr oneyear. As a result of the struggle for West Berlin ,opposing alliances were formed: the North Atlantic

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Treaty Organization of the Western nations, andthe Warsaw Pact of th e Eastern bloc.

In 1950 the United Nations faced new difficultiesin the Far East. Troops of North Korea, which wasund er Sov iet control invaded South Korea, whichwas under US control. Brirish troops formed part ofthe United Na tions force which defended SouthKorea. O nly fear on both sides limited the level andextent of the war. But while Brit ain became morefearful of Sov iet intentions, it also became moreunhappy with the force ful attitude of its ally, theUnited States.

British foreign policy was not on ly conce rned withthe danger from the Sov iet Un ion . It was alsocon cerned with finding a new part to play in afast-changing world, and gett ing used to changingrelat ions with its friends, parti cularly with theUn ited States, with the European coun tries, andwith membe rs of the Commonwealth , a newassociation of former British possessions.

Britain still considered itself to be a world power,and rhis confidence was strengthened by threeimportant technical developments in th e I950swhich increased its milirary strength . Thesedevelopments were in research into space, in thedesign of nucl ear weapons, and in the design ofinterc on tinental balli stic missiles. Britain'sleadersh ip in nuclear power resulted in thedeve lopment of nuclear weapons. But it also led tothe building of the first nuclear ene rgy powersta tion in the world in 1956. A ll these military and

scientific developm ents drew Britain more closely tothe United States, bot h for political and fi nancialreason s.

However, by the early 1960s Britain wasincreasingly interested in joining the new EuropeanCommun ity (EC) . Brita in wanted to join theCo mmuni ty because of the realisation that it hadlost politica l power internationa lly, and because ofa growing desire to play a greater part in Europeanpolit ics.

It was in Egypt tha t Britain 's weakeninginternation al position was most obvious. U nti l1956 Britain had controlled the Suez Can al, but inthat year Egypt dec ided to take it ove r. Britain,together with France and Israel , attacked Egypt.But th e rest of the world , in part icular the UnitedStates loudly disapproved of Brita in's action , andforced Britain to remove its troops from Egypt.Until Suez, Britai n had been able to deal with theUnited States and the Sov iet Un ion as an equal,but afte r Suez this was no longer possible. Fromnow on , Britain was viewed in a new light, noton ly by the two G reat Powers, but also by manyweaker countries in Asia and Africa, particularly bythe Arab countries. T hey began to cha llengeBritain 's author ity more openly. Even moreimportan tly, Suez opened a painfu l debate insideBrita in, in which poli ticians tried to define Britain 'snew internat ional role afte r such a humiliatin gpolit ical defeat.

The welfare stateIn 1918 there had been a wish to return to the"good old days". There was no such feelin g duringthe Second W orld War, when W inston C hurch illhad told the nation , "We are not fighting to restorethe past. We must plan and create a noble future."At the end of the war many reforms wereintroduced , both by Conservat ive and Labour Part yministers. Most of them agreed that there weresocial wrongs in British life whic h had to be putright. The reform s introduced were based on the"New Liberal" reforms which had been carried outjust before th e First World War. But the y wentmuch furt her, and it could be said tha t the whole

23 The age of uncertainty

nation, Conservat ive and Labour, had movedpoliti cally to the left. This move was one of thegreatest ach ievements of the Briti sh labourmovement, and its effect was felt for the next th irtyyears.

In 1944 , for the first time, the gove rnmentpromised free secondary educat ion for all, andpromised to prov ide more furthe r and h ighereducat ion . In 1946 a Labour government broughtin a new Nationa l Health Service, which gaveeveryone the righ t to free medic al treatment . Twoyears later, in 1948, the Na t iona l Assistance Actprovided financ ial he lp for the old, the une mployedand those unable to work through sickness.Mothers and children also received help.

Progress in these areas was the result of new ideasabout basic human rights. Important cit izens'rights, parti cularly freedom of speech, had beenfirmly estab lished in the seventeenth andeighteenth centuries. Political rights, parti cularlyth e right to vote, and to vote secretly , developedduring the nineteenth century. In the twentiethcent ury peop le began to demand basic social rights,such as the righ t to work , the right to prope r healthcare, and the right to care in old age. T he Timesnewspaper wrote in 1940: "If we speak ofdemo cracy we do not mean democracy whichmaintains the righ t to vote but forgets the righ t towork and the righ t to live."

The Labour government went furth er, taking overcontrol of credit (the Bank of England), power(coal, iron and steel ), and transport (railways andairlines). T hese acts were meant to give direct ionre the economy. But on ly 20 per cent of Britishindu stry was actually nationalised , and thesenationa lised industries served private industryrather th an directed it. Nationa lisat ion was adisappointment. Even the workers in thenation alised industr ies did not feel involved inmaking them succeed, as the planners had hoped.Strikes in the nationalised industries were as big aproblem as they were in privately owned indu stries.

As a result of the cha nges which gave importanceto people's happiness and wellbeing, thegovernment became known as "the welfare state".

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The Royal Festival Hallwasamong thebest of 1950sarchitecture. It was built as panof the Festivalof Britaincelebration in 1951, onehundredyears afterthe Great Exhibition.But its real importance was tomark theend of the hardshipscaused by the war. 11 wasapopular celebration of nationalrecovery, with a new concert haIlon London's South Bank and afunfair further upstreama t

Bacersec.

For th e next quarter century both the Conservat iveand Labour parties were agreed on the need to keepup the "welfare state" , in parti cular to avoidunemployment. Britain became in fact a socialdemocracy, in which both main parti es agreed onmost of the basic values, and disagreed mainl yabout method. The main area of disagreement wasthe level of nationalisation desirable for the Britisheconomy to operate at its best.

However, although the welfare state improvedman y people's lives, it also introduced newproblems. Government admini stration grew veryfast in order to provide th e new welfare services.Some peop le objected to the cost , and claimed thatsta te welfare made people lazy and irresponsibleabout the ir own lives.

Youthful BritainLike much of post -war Europe, Britain had becomeeconomically dependent on the United States.Thanks to the US Marshall Aid Programme,Britain was able to recover quickly from the war.

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Working peop le now had a better standard of livingthan ever before. T here was enough work foreveryone . Wages were about 30 per cen t higherthan in 1939 and prices had hardly risen at all.

People had free time to enjoy th emselves. Atweekends many watched football matches in largenew stadiums. In the evenings they could go to thecinema. They began to go away for holida ys tolow-cost "ho liday camps". In 1950 , car produ ctinnwas twice wha t it had been in 1939, and by 1960cars were owned not on ly by rich er people but byman y on a lower income. It seemed as if the sunsho ne on Britain. As one Prime Mini ster said,"You've never had it so good," a remark thatbecame famous.

It was also the age of youth . Young people hadmore money in the ir pockets than ever before , nowth at wages for those just start ing work hadimproved. The result was that the young began to

influence fashion , parti cularly in clothing andmusic. No th ing expressed the youthful "pop"culture of the sixt ies better tha n the Beatl es, whosemusic quickly became internationally known. It was

no accident that the Beatles were working-classboys from Liverpool. They were real representativesof a popul ar culture.

Young people began to express the mselves in otherways. They questioned authority , and the culture inwhich the y had been brought up. In particular theyrebelled against the sexual rules of C hrist iansociety. Some young people sta rted living togetherwithout getring married. In the early 1960s thenumber was small , perhaps on ly 6 per cent , but itgrew to 20 per cent within twenty years.Improvements in birth control made thi s more opensexual beh aviour possible. Divorce became mucheasier, and by 1975 one marriage in three ended indivorce, the highest rate in Europe. O lder peoplewere frightened by thi s development, and called thenew youth culture the "permissive society". Perhapsthe clearest symbol of the permissive age was themini skirt , a far shorte r skirt than had eve r beenworn before.

But there was a limit to what the permissive societywas prepared to accept. Two cabinet ministers, onein 1963, th e othe r in 1983 , had to leave thegovernment when their sexual relationships outsidemarriage became widely known . Public disapprovalcould st ill be unexpectedly strong.

ZJ The age of uncertainty

A popular monarchyDuring the twentieth century the monarch y becamemore popular than eve r before. George V, thegrandson of Victoria, had atrended the first footballC up Final match at Wembley Stadium, and royalattendance became an annual event. On ChristmasDay, 1932, he used the new BBC radio service tospeak to all peoples of the Commo nwealth and theempire. His broadcast was enormously popular, andbegan a tradit ion. In 1935 Ge orge V celebrated hisSilver Jubilee, and drove through crowded streets ofcheering people in the poorest parts of London. "I'dno idea they felt like tha t abou t me ," he said, "I 'mbeginn ing to th ink they must really like me formyself. " To his own great surprise, George V hadbecome a "people's king" .

However, in 1936 the monarch y experienced aserious crisis when George V's son , Edward Vlll ,gave up the throne in order to marry a divorcedwoman. Divorce was sti ll strongly disapproved of atthat t ime , and the event showed how publicopinion now limit ed the way th e royal family couldact in private life. At th e t ime it caused muchdiscussion, and has remained a mat te r for heatedargument.

TheBecdes uere an example ofthe new popular culture. Theycamefrom an ordinary suburbofUverpool, and quickly becameworldfamou.s fortheir musicfrom J964 onwards.

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During the Second World War George VI,Edward's brother, became greatly loved for his visitsto the bombed areas of Brita in. He and his wifewere admired for refusing to leave Buckingha mPalace even after it also had been bombed. Since1952, when Elizabeth 11 became queen , themonarchy has stea dily increased in popu lar ity.

The loss of empireAt the end of th e First World War, the Germancolon ies of Afr ica, as well as Iraq and Palestine inthe Midd le East, were added to Brita in's area ofcontrol. Its empire was now bigger than everbefore, and cove red a quarter of the entire landsurface of the world.

T here were already signs, however , that the empirewas coming to an end. At the 1919 peaceconference US President Woodrow W ilson'sdisapproval of co lon ialism resulted in Britain's latestterritorial gains being descr ibed as "ma nda ted" fromthe League of Nations. Brita in had to agree to helpthese territories towa rds self-gove rnme nt. The realquestions were how long this would rake, and howmuch Britain would try to control the fore ignpolicies of these terr itories even after self­government had been ach ieved. In fact it tooklonger than the populations of some of these areashad been led to hope, and by 1945 on ly Iraq wasindepen dent, and even here Brita in had a stronginfluence on its fore ign policy.

T he United Nations Cha rte r in 1945 also called forprogress towards self-govern ment. It seemed hardlylikely in th is new mood that the Brit ish Empirecou ld last very long. This feeling was strengt henedby the speed with which Britain had lost control ofcolon ial possessions to Japan during the war.

In India there had been a growing demand forfreedo m during the 1920s and 1930s. T h is waspar tly because of th e continued mistrust andmisunderstanding between the British rulers andthe Indian people, well described in E.M. Forster'snovel A Passage to India, published in 1924. But itwas also the result of a growing nationalistmovement, skilfully led by Mahatma Gandhi,which successfully disrurbed British rule. By 1945 It

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was clear tha t British rule in India could no longercontinue. It was impossible and extremelyexpensive to try to rule 300 mill ion peop le without,their co-operat ion . In 1947 the Brit ish finally leftIndia, wh ich then divided into a Hindu stare and asmaller Muslim state ca lled Pakistan . Brita in alsoleft Palestine, where it was unable to keep itspromises to both the Arab inhabitants and th e newJewish settle rs. Cey lon became independen t thefollowing year.

For most of the 1950s Britain managed to keep itsothe r possessions, but afte r Suez it began to givethe m up. O n a visit to Africa in 1960 PrimeMin ister Macm illan warned of a "wind of cha ngeblowing th rough the Continent ." O n h is ret urn to

Londo n he began to speed up plans to hand overpower. This was partly because of the rapid growthof local independence move ments, but also becauseof a change in thinking in Brita in itself. Mostpeople no longer believed in Britai n's right to rule.Between 1945 and 1965 500 million peop le informer colon ies became complete ly self-governing.In some countries, like Kenya, Cyprus and Aden ,Brit ish soldiers fough t against local peop le. Othercountr ies became independen t more peacefully.

On the who le, however, the ending of Brita in'sempire was a highly successful process, carried outin spite of some who opposed surrende ring power,however costly thi s might be. It com pared well withthe bloody events wh ich occu rred whe n bothFrance and Belgium pulled out of th eir colon ies.This successful retreat resulted partly from the greatskill of Prime Min isters and those they chose for thedifficul t job of handi ng over power in each colony.But it was also the result of the quality of itscolon ial admin istrators, particularly those in juniorpositio ns. In spite of the great wrongs of colonialrule, many of these adm in istrators had the highestideals of du ty and service. It was largely due to theirwork that the newly independen t countries felt theywanted to remain on friend ly terms with Brita in.

Britain tri ed to hold onto its international positionthrough its Commonwea lth, wh ich all the oldcolon ies were inv ited to join as free and equalmembers. This has been successful, because it isbased on the kind of friendship that allows all

members ro follow their own policies withoutint erference. At the same tim e, it allows discussionof internation al problems in a more relaxedatmosphe re than is possible through th e UnitedNar ions. It was with th e help of theCommonwea lth tha t Zimbabwe finally movedpeacefu lly from rebellion by the whites toindependence and black majority rule.

Britain also tried to keep its influence by a numberof treat ies with friend ly govern ments in the MiddleEast and in sout heas t Asia. But most ex-coloniesdid not wish to be brought into such arrangements,eithe r with Britain or with any other powerfulcountry.

By 1985 Brita in had few of its old colonialpossessions left, and those it st ill had were beingclaimed by ot her countries: Hong Kong by C hina,the FalklandslMalv inas by Argentina , and G ibralta rby Spain. In 1982 Britain wen t to war to take backthe Falk lands after an Argent in ian invasion. Inspite of the great distance involved, British forceswere able to carry out a rapid recapture of theislands. T he operat ion was very popu lar in Britain ,perhaps because it suggested that Britain was still aworld power. Bur Britain's victory made aneventual solution to the prob lem more difficul t, andpossession of the islands extremely expensive. Thewar itself had cost £900 million, but the tota l costof defend ing the island since 1982 had risen to £3billion by 1987 .

Britain, Europe and theUnited StatesIt was, perhaps, natural that Brit ain was unable togive proper attention to its relations with Europeuntil it was no longer an imperial power. Ever sincethe growth of its trade beyond Europe during theseventeenth cent ury, Britain had ceased to be fullyactive in Europe exce pt at moments of crisis. Aslong as Europe did not interfere with Britain'strade , and as long as the balance of power inEurope was not seriously disturbed , Britain couldhappily neglect European affairs.

At the end of the eighteenth century Napoleon icFrance drew Britain further into European poli tics

Z3 Th e age of unce rtainty

th an it had been, perhaps, since the Hundred Yearswar. In 18 15 Britain co-o perate d with the otherEuropean powers to ensure peace , and it withdrewth is support because it did not wish to work withthe despotic powers then governi ng most of Europe.For the rest of the century, European affairs tooksecond place to empire and imperial trade.

Aft er the First World War it was natu ral that someEuropeans should try to create a European un ionthat would prevent a repetition of war. A fewBritish peop le welcomed the idea. But when Franceproposed such an arrangement in 1930, one Britishpolit ician spoke for the major ity of th e nation :"Our hearts are not in Europe; we could never sha rethe truly European point of view nor become realpatri ots of Europe. Besides, we cou ld never give upour own patriot ism for an Empire wh ich extends toall part s of the world ... The cha racte r of theBritish people makes it impossible for us to takepart seriously in any Pan -European system. "

Since then Britain has found it difficult to moveaway from thi s point of view. Aft er the SecondWorld War the value of European unity was a gooddeal clearer. In 1946 Churchill ca lled for a "Un itedStates of Europe" , but it was already too late toprevent the division of Europe into two blocs. In1949 Britain joined with other Western Europeancountries to form the Counc il of Europe , "toachieve greater unity between members", but it isdoubtful how far this aim has been achieved.Indeed, eight years later in 1957, Britain refused tojoin the six other European countries in thecreat ion of a European Common Market. Britainwas unwilling to surrender any sovereignty orcont rol over its own affairs, and said it st ill feltresponsibility towards its empire.

It qu ickly became clear that Britain's att itude ,particularly in view of the rapid loss of empire, wasmistaken . As its fi nancia l and economic difficulti esincreased, Britai n could not afford to stay out ofEurope . But it was too late: when Britain tried tojoin th e European Community in 1963 and again in1967, the French President Gene ral de Ga ullerefused to allow it. Britain on ly became a memberin 1973, after de Gaulle's retirement.

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An lllusrrared History of Britai n

After becomi ng a member in 1973, Britain 'satt itude towards the European Communitycont inued to be unenthusiastic. Although tradewith Europe greatly increased, most Britishcontinued to feel that they had not had anyeconomic benefit from Europe. T h is feelin g wasstrengthened by th e way in which Prime MinisterMargaret Thatch er argued for a bet ter financial dealfor Britain in the Community's affairs. The way inwhich she fought won her some admiratio n inBritain , but also anger in man y parts of Europe. Shewelcomed closer co-operat ion in the EuropeanCommu nity but only if this did not mean anylessening of sovereignty. Many Europeans saw th isas a contradiction. U nless member states werewilling to surrender some co ntrol over their ownaffairs, they argued, th ere could be littl e cha nce ofachieving greater European unity. It is notsurprising therefore that Britain's European partnerswond ered whethe r Britain was st ill unable "t o takepart seriously in any Pan -European system. "

De Ga ullc's att itude to Britain was not onl y theresult of his dislike of "les Anglo-Saxons" . He alsobelieved that Britain could not make up its mindwhether its first loyalty, now that its empire wasrapidl y disappea ring, was to Europe or to theUnited States.

Brit ain felt its "special relationship" with theUnited States was particularly important. It wasvaguely believed that this relat ionsh ip came from acommon dem ocratic tradition, and from the factthat the United States was basically Anglo-Saxon.Ne ither belief was wholly true, for the UnitedSta tes since 1783 had been a good deal moredemocrati c than Britain , and most US cit izens werenot Anglo-Saxons. Even Britain 's alliance with theUnited States was very recent. In 1814 Britishtroops had burnt down th e US capital,Washington. In the middle of the nin eteenthcentury most British took th e part of the South inthe American C ivil War. By the end of the centurythe United States was openly crit ical of Britain' sempire.

Britain's spec ial relationsh ip rested almost entirelyon a common language, on its wartime alliancewith the United States and the Cold W ar which

174

followed it . In particul ar it resulted from the closerelationsh ip Wi nston C hurch ill persona lly enjoyedwith the American people.

After the war, Britain found itself unable to keepup with the military arms race between the UnitedSta tes and the Soviet Un ion . It soon gave up theidea of an independent nucl ear deterrent, and in1962 took American "Polaris" nucl ear missiles forBritish submarines . The possession of theseweapons gave Britain, in the words of one PrimeMini ster , the right "to sit at the top of the table"with the Superpowers. However, Britain could onlyuse these missiles by agreement with the UnitedStates and as a result Britain was tied more closelyto the United States.

O ther European countries would not have felt souneasy about the close ties between the UnitedStates and Brita in if th ey themselves had notdisagreed with th e United States concern ing theSov iet Union and other foreign policy matters.Ever since 1945 the Uni ted States and the politicalright in Britain were more openly hostile to theSov iet Uni on . The Europeans and th e Britishpoliti cal left were, on the whole, just as suspiciousof Soviet intenti ons, but were more anxious toimprove relations. However, even under Labourgovernments, Britain remained between theEuropean and Amer ican positions. It was natural,therefore, that under Thatch er, who was morefirmly to the right than any Conservative PrimeMin ister since the war, British foreign policy wasmore closely linked to that of the United States,part icularly with regard to th e Soviet Union. Thiswas most clea rly shown whe n , after the Russiansinvaded Afghani stan , Britain joined the UnitedSta tes in boycotting the Moscow O lympics in 1980.Britain sided with the United Sta tes in otherforeign policy matters too, whic h alarmed itsEuropean partners. In 1986, for example, it allowedUS aircraft to use British airfields from which to

attack the Libyan capita l, T ripoli. O ne th ing wasclear from these events ., Britain still had not madeup its mind whet her its first polit ical loyalty layacross the Atlantic , or in Europe.

Troops 011 !he fr011t line inBelfast, Ulster. When !heconflict broke out in 1969 policefaced civil rights proresrers. Afterthe IRA started itscampaign ofshootings andbombings, !heUlster police wasunable tomaintainauthority unassis.~d and!he Britishanny wasdrawn into!he figh t. Civilian protesters andrioters became younger andyounger, making it harder far !hearmy andpolice rokeep c011[ml.Theuseof farce against [we/tie'year-olddemonstrators lookedbad011 relevisi011. Those \I.'hobelieved Britain should C011tinue10 gOtJeTn Northern Irelandsawthe C011flict as a security struggle,while those who believed Ulstershould become part of theRepublic of Irelandsaw il as aliberation struggle.

23 The age of uncertaintv

Northern IrelandWhen Ireland was divided in 1921, the populati onof the new republic was on ly 5 per ce nt Protestant.But in U lste r, the new province of NorthernIreland, 67 pe r cent of the people were Protestant.For man y years it seemed th at almost everyoneaccepted th e arrangement, eve n if some did not likeit.

However, many people in Northern Irelandco ns ide red that the ir system of government wasun fair. It was a self-govern ing province, but itsgove rn ment was controlled by th e Protestants, whofeared th e C atho lics and kept th em out ofresponsible positions. Man y Catho lics were evenunable to vote.

Sudde n ly, in 1969, U lste r people, both Catholicsand Protestants, began to gather on th e streets anddemand a fairer system. The police could not keepcon trol, and republican s who wanted to uniteIrel and turned th is civ il righ ts movement in to ana rionalisr rebe llion aga inst British rule.

In order to keep law and order, Brit ish soldiers weresent to help the police, but many Catholics sawthem as a foreign army with no righr to be the re.

Viole nce has continued, wit h bomb attacks andshoot ings by republican s, which the British armytried to prevent. In 1972 the Northern Irelan dgovern ment was removed and was rep laced wit hdirect rule from London. Since then , Britain hasbeen anxious to find a solut ion which will pleasemost of the peo ple there, and offer peace toeve ryone .

In 1985 Britain and Ireland made a formalagreement at Hillsborough that they wou ldexchange views on Northern Ireland regu larly. Th isagreement was bitterly opposed by Prot estan tpoli tical leaders in the pro vin ce. But th eir failure toput a stop to the Hillsborough Ag reement resu ltedin a growing challenge from those Protestants whowanted to continue the struggle ourside Parliamentand possibly in a military form.

The futu re of Northe rn Irelan d rema ins un certain.The Catho lic pop ulat ion is inc reas ing sligh tly faste rthan the Protestant one, but there are unlikely tobe more Catholics than Protesrants for a very longtime. Meanwh ile young people in Notthern Irelandcanno t remember a time when there was peace inth e province.

175

An Illustrat ed Hi stor y of Britain

Scotland and WalesIn Scotl and and Wales, too, there was a growingfeelin g by the 1970s that the gove rnment inLondon had too much power, In Wales, anationalist patty, Plaid Cyrnru, the parry of "fellowcountrymen", became a strong politi cal force in the1970s. But W elsh nationa lism lost suppott in 1979when the people of Wa les tu rned down thegovernment's offer of limited self-gove rnment.Almost certa in ly thi s was beca use man y of them didnot welcome wider official use of the Wel shlanguage. In spite of the rise of Plaid Cvmru, theWel sh language was actua lly spoken less and less.In 195 I 29 per cent of the Wel sh population spokeWel sh . By 1981 thi s fi gure had fallen to 19 percent, even thoug h Welsh was used for man y rad ioand television programmes, and in schoo ls.

In Sco tla nd, rhe Sco tt ish Nationalist Patty(SNP) showe d its growing popul arit y by increasingits percentage of the national vote from 20 per cen tto 30 per cent during 1974. The SN P became thesecond party in Scotland, pushing theCo nservat ives into third place. When Scotland wasoffered the same limited furm of self-gove rnment asWales, just ove r half of those who voted suppor tedit. But the government decided that 54 per cent ofthose who voted was not a big enough major ity,and to the anger of the SN P it abandone d th e self­government offer. As a result the SN P itselfcollapsed at the next election, losing nine of itseleven seats. But like Plaid Cy rnru in Wales, theSN P remained active in Sco ttis h poli tics. In bothcountries most peop le continued to suppott theLabour Patty , partly in pro test against mainlyConservative England . A lthough in Wales Wel shwas declining, and although in Sco tland only avery few peop le st ill spoke Gaelic, the differentpolit ical and cultural life of Celtic Wa les andSco tland seemed un likely to disappear.

The years of discontentDurin g the I950s and I960s Britain remained aEuropean leader econo mically as well as poli tically.But Britain sudde nly began to slip rapidly beh ind itsEuropean neighbou rs economically. This was part ly

176

The discowry of oil in commercial quanfities in rhe Norrh Sea {)'!'ovdedwelcome help IQ Britain when its lnuIitimull sourcesof illcome were in declineilllhe 19705. Tht! consrnlClion vf oil rigsl)'!'vlJiJcd work {or thousandsofshipllll i ~lL'fs for whom there were 110 more shi/)5 to huilJ. By the car!}' 19805,howet1er, 110 more oil rigs were required and unemployment followed. Inaddition, mllch of Britain's income from oil W(l~ losr (In IHlemploymenrbenefirfor Ihe three millioll or so people ourof work.

Concorde, the result vf Anglv,French co·operarion, U " l~ rhe mosr adt'ancedcit'il jerair/iner in rhe twrlJ. Bur il U'aS WU expensiw, no (JIlt' wished IQ buyit , and irwasa cmTlmercial failure. 11 was ollly used fry the French andBrilish rwliOJUlI airlines.

the result of a new and unpleasant experience, acombinati on of rising prices and growingunemployment. Governments were uncertain abouthow to solve th e problem , and no longer agreedthat the sta te had a responsibility to preventunemployment.

How real were Britain's economic problems? Mostpeop le's wea lth had continued to grow. By the endof the 1970s four-fifths of homes had the it owntelephones and refrigerators, and two-thirds ownedtheir own homes and cars.

Compared with irs European neighbours, however,Brirain was cer ta in ly doing less well. In 1964 on lyWest Germany of the six European Communirycountries produced more per head of popul at ionrhan Britain. Thirteen years later, however, in1977 , on ly Italy produced less. Brirain eve nt uallyjoined rhe Europe an Community in 1973, hopingthat it would be able to share the new Europeanwealth . By 1987 thi s had not yet happened, andBritain has continued to slip beh ind most otherEuropean countries. T he British Am bassador inParis wrote in 1979, "today we are not only nolonger a world power , but we are not in the firstrank as a Europe an one . . . We ta lk of ourselveswith ou t sha me as being one of the least prosperouscountries in Europe If present trends co ntinue,we sha ll be overtaken by Italy and Spain wellbefore th e end of th e century." And he po inted outth at for the first time in three hundred years theaverage indi vidual income in Brirain was well belowth at in France. France itself, however, made a grea teconom ic recovery in the seventies. Some believedthat Britain cou ld do the same.

Brita in also experienced new social prob lems,part icularly after the arrival of immigrants inBrita in. All through British h istory there have beentimes when large numbers of immigrants have cometo settle in th e country. But until recently th esepeople, being Europeans, were not noticeablydifferent from the Brit ish themselves. In the fifties,however, th e first black immigrants sta rred to arrivefrom the W est Indies, looking for work . By 1960there were 250,000 "coloured" immigrants inBritain and also the first signs of troubl e with youngwhi tes.

23 The age of unce rtainty

Later, Asian immigrants sta rted to arrive from Indiaand Pakistan and from East Africa. Mostimmigrants lived together in poor areas of largecities. Leicester's popu lation beca me 16 per centimmigrant , Wolverha mpron and Bradford abo ut8 per cent each. By 1985 there were about fivemillion recent immigran ts and the ir ch ildren out ofa tot al populat ion of about fifty-six million . By1985, too, almost half thi s black population hadbeen born in Brita in . Even so, th ere were sti llwhite peop le who, in the words of one newspaper,"go on pretending .. . that one day the blacks cansomehow be sen t 'home', as th ough home for mostof them was anywhere else but Brita in ."

As unemployment grew, the new immigrants weresometimes wrongly blamed . In fact, it was often theimmigrants who were willing to do dirty orunpopular work, in facto ries, hospitals and otherworkplaces. T he relat ionship between blackimmigrants and the white popu lation of Britain wasnot easy. Black people found it harder to obta inemp loyment, and were often only able to live inth e worst housing. T he government passed laws toprevent unequal treat ment of black people, but alsoto control the number of immigrants coming toBritain .

The old ninete enth-century city centres in whichblack immigrants had settled were areas with seriousph ysical and econ omic problems. In the 1980s badhousing and unemployment led to riots inLiverpool, Bristo l and London, worse than any seenin Britain since the nineteenth century. Blackpeople were blamed for causing these riots, but the ywere in fact main ly the result of serious andlongstandin g econo mic difficult ies, whic h affectedthe black population living in the old city centresmore than the wh ite.

T here were other signs that Brit ish society wasgoing throu gh a difficult period. T he Saturdayafternoon football match, the favouriteentertainment of many British families, graduallybecame th e scene of frightening and oftenmeaningless violence . British football crowdsbecame feared around th e world. In 1984 anEnglish crowd was mainly responsible for a disaste r

177

Immigrams from differentCommonwealth countries tendedto live rogether in paTtieulardistricts. In Southall, weSl

London. many Punjabis,G14jaralis and 5ikJu from Indillseeded down, opening shops andbecomingsuccessful in (rade.

at a mat ch in Brussels in which almost forty peoplewere killed. Peop le were shocked and ashamed, butstill d id not und erstand the reason for the violence.The permissive soc ie ty and unemployment wereblamed , but the strange fact was th at those whosta rted the violence were often well-off members ofsociety with good jobs.

Women, too, had reason s for discontent . Theyspoke out increasingly against sexism, inadvert ising, in emp loyment and in journalism .They protested about violence against women anddemanded more severe punishme nt for sex ualcrimes. They also tried to win the same pay andwork opportunitie s as men. This new movementresulted from the growth in th e number of workingwomen . Between 1965 and 1985 the number ofwives with jobs increased from 37 per cen t to 58 percent. In 1975 it became unlawful to treat womendifferently from men in matters of empl oyment andpay. But th is law was not fully enforced , and itcontinued to be harder for women to take a full partin national life.

178

Unemp loyment increased rap idly at the end of the1970s, reaching 3. 5 million by 1985. In man ytowns, 15 per cent or more of the workingpopulation was o ut of work. U nemployment washighest in the industrial north of England, and inBelfast , C lydeside and southeast Wales, as it hadbeen in the 1930s depression. T hings became worseas steel mills and coa l mines were closed. In 1984the miners refused to accept the closing of mines,and went on strike. Afte r a year of violence duringwhich miners fought with th e police the strikefailed.

T he defeat of the miners showed how much powerand confidence the trade unions had lost . This waspartly because they faced a gove rnment determinedto reduce the power of the unions. But it was alsobecause they seemed unable to change themselvesto meet changed circumstances, and they seemedafraid of losing their power .

Inflation had made the situat ion more difficult.Between 1754 and 1954, prices had mult iplied by

six. Then , they mul tiplied by six again in the spaceof on ly thi rty years. between 1954 and 1984 . Insuch circumstances it proved almost impossible tomake sure that all workers felt that they were fairlypaid.

Industrial prob lems also increased the differencesbetween the "comfortable" sout h and the poorernorth. It is easy to forget that this division alreadyexisted before the ind ustrial revo lution, when th enorth was poorer and had a smaller populat ion.The large cit ies and towns built during theind ustr ial revolut ion have had great difficul ty increat ing new industries to replace the old.

The new politicsFew of the problems of the I980s were en tirelynew . However, many people blamed them on thenew Co nservative government, and in particular,Britain's first woman Prime Minister, MargaretThatch er. Thatch er had been elected in 1979becau se she promised a new beginning for Britain .The need for such a break with the past had beenwidely recognised for some years. As a result the oldConservat ive- Labour agreement on the guidingprinciples of the welfare sta te had already brokendown . In the Conservat ive Patty there had been astrong movement to the right, and in the LabourPart y the re had been a similarly strong move to theleft. Both moved furth er away from the "centre" ofBritish polit ics than they had don e in livingmemory.

This basic change in Brit ish politics caused a majorcrisis for the Labour Patty. Labour was no strangerto internal conflict, nor to these conflicts beingdamagingly conducted in public. In the I930s thepart y had turned against its own first PrimeMini ster, Ramsay MacDonald, when he formed anational government with the Co nservatives tohandle the fi nancia l crisis of 1931. Four years laterit had again been split between its traditional anti­war members and those who recognised the Nazidanger. In 1959 Labour had again publiclydisagreed about two issues, nationalisation andnuclear weapons, which a large section of th e part y

Z3 The age of unce rtai n ty

Margaw Tharcher, the Ionge5l5ertJingPrime Mmurer of the [wentiethcenlury. Her5lyleand hervieW5 appealed to many Briti5h peoplewhohad1051 confidence in lhewelfare 5taleand in rhe direclion lhenarion had taken.In some waY55hewas [he finl genuine leader rhe nalion had had sinceChurchill, the polilician on whom 5heconsciously modelledhenelf. Inspue oflheioa [hat overhalfrhe nation di5agreed tviLh herpolicie5, the y wereunableto voteherourof office.

wished to give up, whether other nuclear armednations did so or not . Thi s time, however, thedisagreements between the patty's left and rightwere far more damaging . The 1979 electi on resultwas rhe worst defeat since 1931. Worse, however,was to follow, and as the bitter con flict cont inued,many people ceased to bel ieve in the patty's abilityto gove rn itself, let alone the country.

Labour suffered a furthe r blow when four sen iorrigh t-Wing members left th e patty to form the ir own"Soc ial Democratic Part y" in 1981 , in alliance withthe small but surviving Liberal Patty. For someyears the Liberal Party had been ca lling for acha nge in the electoral system. It had good reasonto do so. In 1974 the Liberals had received 20 percent of the national vote but on ly 2 per cent of theseats in Parliament . By March 1982 the new"Alliance" was gain ing ground both from theConservative and Labour patties.

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An Illustrated Hi story of Britain

Margarer Thatche r had come to power ca lling onthe na tio n for hard work, pa triotism and self-he lp.She was nor , however, a typical Conservat ive. Asone of her ministers said, <11 am a nineteen th ­century Liberal, and so is Mrs Thatcher. T hat 'swhat th is gove rnment is about." There was muchtruth in the rema rk, for she wanted free trade atho me and abroad, individual enterprise and lessgove rnment economic protection or interference.However , she was more of a Palmersron than aGladstone, She wanted more "law and order" butwas a good dea l less willing to underta ke the socialreform for which later nineteenth-century Liberalswere noted.

Not everyone in the C onservat ive Party was happyabout th e change in policy. The discontentedmembers ·became known as "wets", one of whomargued that "people . .. must at least feel loyalty tothe sta te. T h is loyal ty will not be deep un less th eygain from the sta te protecti on and other benefits",and he warned against th e state's "failure tocreate a sense of community". Thatch er, however,ignored these views, saying that she "could notwaste time having any internal arguments."

By the beginn ing of 1982 th e Conservat ivegovernment had become deep ly unpopul ar in thecountry . However , by her fi rm leadersh ip duringth e Falkl ands War Thatcher captured th eimagination of the nati on, and was confidently ableto call an election in 1983.

As expected, Thatcher was returned to power witha clear majority of 144 seats in the 650-seatParliament . It was the greatest Conservat ive victoryfor forty years. In part Thatcher's victory was aresult of the "Falklands fact or", Far more, however,it was the result of a split opposition vote, betweenLabou r and the A lliance , and the continuedweak ness of the Labour Party, whic h suffered itsworst result since the early 1920s. Once again theA lliance had the disappo int ment of gaining 26 percent of the nat ion al vote , but on ly 3.5 per cent ofthe seats in Parliament . A clear majority had votedagainst th e return of a Conservat ive government ,sho wing dissatisfact ion with Thatcher's po licies. Itwas not diffi cult to see why this was so.

180

Thatcher had promised ro stop Britain 's decl ine ,but by 1983 she had not succeeded. Industrialproduction since 1979 had fallen by 10 per cent ,and manufacturing production by 17 per cent. By1983, for the fi rst time since the industrialrevolution, Britain had become a net importer ofmanufactured goods. T here was a clear econo micsh ift towards service industri es. Une mployment hadrisen from 1.25 million in 1979 to over 3 mill ion .

However , Thatcher cou ld claim she had begun roreturn nationalised industries to the private secto rI

th at she had gone even further th an she hadprom ised. By 1987 telecommunicati ons, gas, BritishAi rways, Brit ish Aerospace and Briti sh Shipbuildershad all been put into privat e ownership. She couldalso claim tha t she had broken the power of thetrade un ions, someth ing else she had promised to

do. In fact , the trade unions had been damagedmore by growing unemployment than bygovernment legislati on. She could be less confidentabout increased law and order. In spite of increasingthe size of the police force, the re was a falling rateof crime prevention and detecti on . In add it ion, therough behaviour of the police in dealing withindustrial disputes an d city riots had seriouslydamaged the ir reputation .

The most serious accu sat ion against the Thatchergovernment by th e middle of the 1980s was that ithad created a more unequal society, a soc iety of"two na t ions", one wealthy, and the othe r poor.According to these crit ics, the divide cut across thenation in a number of ways. The number of verypoor, who received only a very small amount ofgovernment help, increased from twelve million in1979 to over sixteen million by 1983. In themeant ime, reductions in income tax favoured thehigher income earners.

T he division was also geograph ical, betw eenprosperous suburban areas, and neglect ed in ner cityareas of decay . A lth ough th e government soldmany sta te-owned houses and fl ats to th e peoplewho lived in them, it also halved th e number ofnew houses it built between 198 1 and 1985 , aperiod in whic h the number of homeless peopleincreased.

23 The age of uncertainty

London's docklands. From the eighteenthcentury until the 1950s theinhabiwms of these areas worked in London's bus)' docks. Then the docksdied, andremained empt),until the J980s when the wholearea wasredew loped. Youngprofessionals fromOlltside the areamoved into .the newhousing (foreground) because il wasclose to the banks andfinancialinstifldions (background) in which the-, worked. Although redevelopmentbrought newwealth to the area, some of the old Iow~incomed docklandcommunit), utw saw no benefit far lhemselws 11lO\-'t'd out.

More importantly, people saw a divide between thenorth and south of the cou ntry . N ine ty-four percent of the jobs lost since 1979 had been north of alin e runni ng from the Was h, on the east coast, tothe Bristol channel in the west. People were awareof growing unemp loyment in the "depressed" areas,and fewer hopes of finding a job. Indeed, by 198641 per cent of those unemp loyed had been out ofwork for over a year , compared with on ly 25 percent in 1979. As a result , it was not surprising thatLabour continued to be the stro nger part y in thenorth , and in ot her depressed areas. In th e moreheavily populated south , the A lliance replacedLabour as the main oppos ition party.

T he black community also felt separate d fromricher Britain. Most blacks lived in the poor innercity areas, not the riche r suburbs, and

une mployment among blacks by 1986 was twice ashigh as among the white popu lat ion.

In spite of these prob lems, Thatch er's ConservativePart y was st ill more popular tha n any other singlepart y in 1987. In the national elect ions that year,the Conservative Part y was returned to power witha major ity of 102 seats. This was partl y beca usesince 1979 persona lit ies had become politicallymore important. Th atcher was seen as morederermined and more convi nc ing than rhe Labouror A lliance leaders. It was also because theopposit ion to Conservat ive policy remain ed splitbetween Labour and the A llian ce , and it appearedpermanently so.

There were orhe r reasons why the ConservativePart y, wirh only 43 per cent of the nationa l vot e,

181

A n Illustrated History of Britain

won so convinc ingly. Its emphasis on personalwealt h and property owne rship had begun tocha nge th e way many traditiona l Labour supportersvoted. It may be that man y lower income peop leliving in the Mid lands and south shifted theirloyalties to the right. O n the other hand, inSco tland the Conservat ives lost half the ir seats,mainl y to Labour or the Sco tt ish Nat ional Party, anindicat ion of the increased sense of divi sionbetween richer and poorer Britain , and anind icat ion that Scott ish radicalism was as strong asever.

Thatch er's victory caused concern for bothopposit ion part ies. Labour had done better thanman y had expec ted . However , it still had to facethe fact that T hatc her's policies were creat ing asociety whic h seemed decreasingly in terested inLabour ph ilosophy, and it had to decide how itcould make thi s ph ilosophy more attrac tive withoutgiving up its principles. The Alli ance also facedserious prob lems. It had done worse than expec ted,calling into question its claim to rep lace th e two­party system with a three-party one. It now seemedthat it would take two or three national electionsbefore th is question , and the connec ted question ofproportional representation, would be decided.

The 1987 election brought some comfort , however,to two underrepresented groups. In 1983 onlynineteen (3 per cent) of the 650 members ofParliament had been women , almost the lowestproportion in western Europe. In 1987 th is figuremore than doub led to forty-one women MPs (6.5per cent ), a figure wh ich suggested that the pol iticalparties realised that without more womenrepresentat ives the y migh t lose votes. Blacks andAsians, too , gained four seats, the largest numberthey had ever had in Parliament , although likewomen they remain ed seriously und errepresented.

Britain: past, present and futureBy the late I980s most British people felt th at thefuture was full of uncertain ty. These doubts resultedfrom disappointment with lost economic andpolit ical power. Many people looked back to the"Swinging Sixt ies" as the best ten years Britain hadhad thi s century.

182

However, people were divided conce rn ing thenation's fut ure possibili ties. Some, those who hadvoted for Thatcher, were optimist ic. They believedth at material wealth was vital for national ren ewal ,and that economic success was about to happen .

O thers were unhappy with the direction the nat ionwas taking. They believed that the emphasis onmaterial wealth encouraged selfishness, and aretreat from an ideal of communi ty to a desire forpersonal gain . They were worried by the weakeningof the welfare sta te , partic ularly in the educat iona land health services.

The government said much abo ut maintaini ng"tradit ional values" , part icularly law and order.Respect for the law, it argued, was rooted in Brit ishtraditi on. It also spoke of a return to Victorianvalues. O n the other hand, its opponents arguedtha t the tradition of broad popular agreemen t onthe management of the nation 's affairs was in gravedanger. Neithe r side was wholly right in its claim .For examp le, the Conservativ e argument forgotthat in the past, the law had been frequentlybroken not only by criminals but also by those forwhom it was oppressive, like the TolpuddleMart yrs. It forgot , too, that the Victorians hadvalued not on ly enterprise and hard work but hadalso cared abou t social reform to assist the weakermembers of society. In the same way, when Labouraccused the Conservatives of putti ng broad nationalagreement in danger, it forgot that its own partyorigins lay with the radicals who stood againstacce pted national polit ical pract ice. But suchawkward facts were easily placed on one side, andthe polit ical parties appea led to "history", as thisfitted rheir view of modem Brita in and th e gloriousfuture they offered if the people supported them.

T he re was noth ing new in th is. Peop le have alwayslooked at history in the way tha t suited their systemof beliefs. In 1988 Britain celebrated two majoranniversaries, the defeat of the Spanish Armada in1588, and the Glorious Revolut ion in 1688. O newas about Britain's successful military and foreignpolicy, the other about its successful const itut ionaldevelopment. The popular view is that both weretrul y glor ious events. However, the truth is less

Theroyalfamily celebrates theweddingof Prince AndrfwandSamhFcrguson. In rhe 1980, rheroyal family became "uorldproperty" ma way if had notbeen before. Members of theroyal family became the subjectof journalistic invesrigation, bothin their public andprivate lives,and began to mirror television"soapoperas" in theirentertainmentvalue.

l3 The age of unce rtai nrv

simple. The Span ish Armada was defeated more bythe wearh er rhan by rhe English navy, the Span ishnavy became stronger rather than weake r after1588, and the war with Spain seriously damagedrhe econo my of England . Neverthe less, the defeatof the Armada has remained a symbol of Britain 'sseafaring success. It was given particular importancein the late nin eteenth century, when British world ­wide command of the seas was at its height. By1988 it was harder to think in the same way,because British fore ign policy had shrunk in recen tyea rs, with a decline in its interests beyond Europeand the United States.

There was also somet hing slightly uncomfortableabout celebration of the G lor ious Revolution . TheG lor ious Revolution was about the sovereign ty ofParliament in the nation 's affairs. But not eve ryonewas happy with parl iamentary life by 1988. Was itsconstituency system truly democratic ? WasParli ament itself too powerful? There was ano ther

reason for discomfort. The G lorious Revolution hadbeen a disaster for Ireland. In 1988 there was areminder of thi s side of Britain's hisrory in theconfl ict in Northern Ireland, where even theProtestant "Loyalists" were unhappy with rule bythe Westminster Parliament. In Sco tland, Wa les,and parts of England , too, there were peop le whodisliked the centra lised power of Westmi nster,which had increased in the Thatch er years.

Britain has more living symbols of its past thanmany countries. It st ill has a royal family and asmall nobility. Its cap ita l, cit ies and countrys ideboast many anc ient buildings, castles, cat hedrals,and the "sta tely homes" of the nobili ty. Every yearthere are historical ceremonies, for example theState O pen ing of Parliament , the Lord Mayor'sShow , or the meeting of rhe Knights of the Garte rat Windsor each St George's Day. It is easy to thinkthe se symbols are a true representation of th e past.Britain 's real h istory, however, is abo ut the who le

183

An Illustrated History of Britain

people of Britain, and what has shaped them as asociety. This means, for example, that the recentstory of black and Asian immigration to Britain isas much a part of Britain's "heritage" as its statelyhomes. Indeed more so, since the immigrantcommunity's con tr ibut ion to national life liesmain ly in the future.

When looking at Britain today, it is important toremember the great benefits from the past. Noot her country has so long a history of politicalorder, going back almost without interruption tothe Norman Conquest. Few other countries haveenjoyed such long periods of economic and socialwellbeing.

It is also important , however, to remember the lesssuccessful aspects of the past . For example, why didthe political views of the seventeenth-c enturyLevellers or nineteenth-century C hart ists, whichtoday seem so reasonable , take so long to beaccepted ? Why did the women's struggle to play afuller part in national life occur so late , and whywas it the n so difficul t and pain ful? Why is therestill a feeling of division betwe en the north andsouth of Britain ? Is Britain , which in many wayshas been a leader in parliamentary dem ocracy,losing that position of leadership today, and if so,why?

T he questions are almost endl ess, and the answersare neither obvious no,' easy. Yet it is the continueddiscussion and reinterpretation of the past whichmakes a study of Britain 's history of value to itspresent and its future.

184

Index

Aberdeen 56,61, 153Adarn. Robert 116Adelard of Bath 99Africa (sec also west , south,

north an d east Africa) 4.145- 8, 169, 17Z

Afri ca Company 7SAgtncoun 43. 53.54Albe rt . Prince Consort 144aldermen 13Alexander. King of Scots 30A lfred, King 15, 16A lliance. Libera l.and Soc ia l

Democratic 179- tazAIH., (1939-45) 166- 168A merica seealsoSou th America .

United Sta tes and Canada /6.31,69, 73, 74,81, 97, 99,105, 112, 113, Ill, 128. 142,145, 14B, 154, 161, 163, 164Civil War 174War of Independence 112.

134, 136Annc. Queen 87.88, 96.97.

107An gles 11, 20, 21, 85Anglican C h urch see Ch urch ofEngland

Anglo-Irtsh 32Anglo-Saxons 7, 12-15 ,1 8,

23, 35, 37, 39, 40, 45language 64

Angle-Irish Treaty (92 1) 163An sclm, A rchbishop of Cante r­

bury 29Aquitaine ze. 44Arab cou nt ries 145. 169Arbroarb . Declaration of (1320)33

Argentina 173Armada . Span ish 43. 54. 73­

74, 98, 182- 3army . Brit ish 92-3 . 97. 109.

112, I ll , 128-9, 145-6, 159­60, 166-7, 172, 173, 175

Anhur, King 6. 45. 65. 75A rthur . Prince of Wales 75Am and C rafts Movement 155Atlan tic C harter 168Augustin e, St 13, 14Auld A lliance 43,44.56,77,96

Austra lia 75. 116, 132. 148,153

Austria 27. 109. 131, 142, 165Austria-Hu ngary 157Avignon . popes of 49A xts. (1939- 45) 166- 168

BBC 171Bacon . Francis 99Bacon . Roger 99Balkans 132Balhol. John de 32- 33Bank of England 108, 169

Bannockhum , banl e of ( 1314)33, 43

Bapt ists 99barrows [burial mounds) 4B"H 99, 116Bayeux Tapes try J7Beaker people 5.6Beat les t70- 1Bede, the Venerable 11, 14. 15,99

Becket. Th omas, Archbishop ofCante rbury 23. 29.64

Bedford. John duke of 53duke of 117

Belfa st 165, 175, 178Belgtc tribes 7Belgiu m 44, 68, 12B, 129, 132,

157,160Bevtn. Emesr 166Birmingham 12, 84 , 107.114.

128, 1l 4, llB , 154Black Death (1348) 46Black Prince 45, 48Blenheim, battle of (1704) 97Boadicea 8. 9Beers 146, 157Bolcvn, Anne 68, 69. 70Bolsheviks, Bolshevism 160.

162, 165Bonaparte 5ee Napo leonBooth, WiIliam 155Boru. Brian 20Boston Tea Party 112Bosworth. battle of (1485) 55,56, 68

Bovle, Robert 99Bovne. batt le of the (1690) 97Bradford 1l 4, 177Breugnv. Tre aty of (1360) 44Brerons 53. 55BtiSlOI 74, 103, 106, 125, 177Brita in . Great . new state of(1707) 96

Brittany 44Britons, Ancient 21Bronze Age 6- 7Bruce, Robert 32-3Brunel, Isambard Kingdom 139Buckingham 134duke of 55Buckingham Palace 172

Burwan. John 99burgh, borough 16Burgundy. duke of 44. 53, 55Burghley, Lord 80Burke, Edmund 112-3.128Burma 167Byron. Robert 142

cabinet government 108Cadbury, Arthur 154Cad iz 74Caernarfon 32, 52Caesar. julius 7, 8Calais 44. 53, 60

Caledonia 9Calvin. John 69Cambridge 41. 55. 61, 65. 100.

151, 162Canada 109, 112. 116, 148canals 103.123Ca nning, Lord 142Ca non law 35Ca nterbury 13, 29

Archbishops of 14. 28, 30, 49.89

Cape Co lony 131Cathe rine of Aragon 69, 70. 71Catholicism. Ca tholics (see also

C hurch) 70-73. 76, 77, 85,88, 89,94-6,97, 108, Il l ,114, 141, 149, 154

Ca valiers (Royalists) 91C axton . William 65, 75Celts, Celtic culture 6- 14. 18-

1I , 31, 32, 45, 56Cevlon 13I, 153, 172Chamberlain, Neville 166Charles I 86. 88-93Charles 11 93- 95. 100, 101Charles V (of Spain) 59, 70Charles Edward, Prince (Bonny

Prince Charlie) I I J. 113charters of freedom 40C hartists 135, 136. 143, 184Charbarn , William Piu the

Elder. Lord 109, 112C ha ucer. Geoffrey 64, 65. 85.

99C hina 145. 173Christianity 13-1 5.1 7, 19.23.

145CHUlCh n, 16, ll, 28, 29-30,

35,36, 41, 49,53,61 , 62,65 ,69, 70, 85, 94-95, 99, 105,152, 155Celtic Church 14.15.21.32Church of England 69,88.

93- 5, 99, Ill, 124, 139, 140,141, 152

Roman C hurch seealsoCat holicism 14

C hurchi ll. Winston Spencer166- 69, 174

civil law 35C ivil War 0 642-45) 90,91.

95clans 21, 32, 56, 77, 113, 116C nut, King 16coffeehouses 104Co ke. Sir Edward 88Co lumba. S, to. 21Commons. House of 31, 61. 79.

80, B7, 88 , 92. 125, 135, 141,143, 156

Co ld Wa, 174Co mmonwealth . British 148.

168, 171,172,173communism 162Co ncorde 176

Co nservative Party 143, 156- 7,162,169-70, 174,1 76.179,IBO- 1. 182

Co-operative Movement 143Co penhagen, battle of

(1801) 12BCo rn Law 136, 141Co rnwall 4. 5, 7. 11Co rresponding Society 128Crecv. baule of (1346) 44C rimea 145. 146, 159C romwellvOlwer 91,92- 4, 99,

104Crornwell. Richard 93Cromwell. Thomas 68. 70C ulloden, battleof(1746) Ill.

113, 116Cyprus 172Czechoslovakia 166

Dail (Irish parliament ) 163Danegeld 16Danelaw 16. 36Dane s see ciso Vtktngs 16.17.

36Dardanelles 160Damlev. Lord 78Darwin, C harles 155David, King of Scots 44Defoe, Daniel 109Denmark 15Derrv (see also Londonderry) 76Dickens. C harles 131. 132. 155Disraeli. Benjamin 143Dom esda y Book 25, 34, 36-37,

70Dorset 5. 6. 8. 134Drake. Sir Francis 73-4. 109.

142Druids 8, 19Dublin 20, 32, 97, 113, 163Dunkirk 166Durham. Lord 148Dutch 73, 75, 87, 97

earl 13east Africa 177East Anglia 12. 48,92East India Co mpany 75, 97. 11 0East lndtes 75. 108Easter Rising (1916) 163Eastland Co mpany 75Edinburgh 21, 44,56.61, Il 3,

116, 149Education Acts 151Edward the Co nfessor 16-17,

18, 34Edward I 30- 4, 39, 43, 52, 57Edward 11 32-3, 43, 51Edward 11\ 33, 44,45, 4B- 9,

51, 61,64Edward IV (Duke of York) 55.

56Edward V 55Edward VI 70,71 ,77, 79

18 5

InJ e x

Edward VII /48EdwardVIII 171Egypr 128, 146, 147, 169cisfcJdfods 76Emsrem. Albcrr 100Eleanor of Aqui tain e 16Elc aberh I 67, 70, 72- 4, 76,77. 79-80, 84, 87, 89, 118

Eluaberh 11 172empire. Brit ish 74.-5, 107 . 129.

141- 8, 171-2, 174electoral po lit ics 110. 134. 143.

161- 3, 176, 180- 2enclosures 81 -2. 107. 116-7.

118Engels. Fncdnch 16 1- 2Era srnus 85Erhclred . King 16Eton College 55. 65Europe 3, 4, I, 6, 7, 8, 10, 13,

11,29,31, 40, 41, 43,19,68,69.73, 88, 97, 101.103. 114,11 7, 120, 121, 123, 127, 128­9, 131, 1J2 , 136. 138. 141,111-7,1 19,161 ,164,161,166- 8,170- 1,1 73,1 74.171,183

Evangelica lism 137

Factory Act , First (l 833) 125Falklands 173.1 80family life 62- 3, 84- 5, 105,

119-20, 136-7Far East 109, 166. 168Farrfax. Ge neral 9 1fascists. fascism 165-6Fawkes, Guy 89feudalism 23- 5. 28.31, 32, 33,

39, 43Fianna Fail 164First World War (19 14- 18)

119- 61, 163, 167, 169, 172,173

Flande rs 44, 48, 60. 61F1emings 40. 48 . 56. 83Flcdden, battleof(151 3) 77Fox. C harles [ ame s 128France (and the French ) 15. 16.

17, 26, 27. 28, 29, 30, 31, 32,34, 39,40,43,44,49, 12, 13,16, 61, 67, 68, 69, 72, 73, 77.78, 93,96,97,98, 107, 108­10, 11 3, 121, 123, 121- 9,131,132, 134, 136, 137, 138,142,117,1 19-61,161,1 66­8, 173French language 41 . 64

Franks 9. 15Fredenck of Prussia I 11French Revolut ion 125. 128-

129, 134Frobisber. Martin 73Fry, Elizabeth 121

Gallipoli lOOGa ndh i. Mahatma 172Ga rter . O rder of the 45

Knigh ts of the 183Gascony 40, 44, 53Ga u! 8, 9Ga ulle. Ge nera l de 173

186

Gaunt. John of 51, SSgenera! strike (1926) 164Geoffrey of Monmout h 5G eoffrev Plantagenet , duke of

Anj ou 26George I 107, 108G eorge III 109. 110-1, 113George V /48.116,171Georgc VI 172Ge rmanic groups 9-11Ge rmany 14. 15. 39.69. 78 .

132, 143,1 10. 116- 7, 119­61, 164, 161-7, 172German language 108

G ibraltar 97. 173G ladsrone. Willia m 141. 143.

148,1 80G lasgow 56.61, 107. 116. 134.

149,153G lorious Revolution 95. 108.

182- 3GlvndwrvO wam 52government. Saxon 12

Viking 16early Middle Ages 23.3 1,

34-5late Middle Ages 57T udor 69. 79- 80Sruarr 94-5eighteenth century 108-9nineteenth century 136twe n t iet h cen tury 155- 6.

169- 70. 179- 82local government 12. 13, 57­8,61,72,82-3, 112- 3

Gre at Exhibition (I 85l) 138,111- 6, 170

G reeks 142G regory the G reat . Pope 13G rey, Sir Edward 157G rey. Lady Jane 71G rey. Lord 134Gruffvdd ap Llewelvn 18guilds 40-41, 76

Hadrian. Emperor 9Hallev. Edmund 100Hanseanc League 68Harold. King 17Harvev . WiIliam 99Hastings. battle of (1066) 12.

17Hawkins, Sir John 73. 74Hanove r 96. 107. 110Hebrides 21hen ges 5.6Henrv l 21.26,29,3 1, 34,31,99, 108

Henry 11 22, 26, 27. 29, 32. 31.36

Henry III 30. 35Henry IV (duke of Lancaste r}

10- 3,55Henry V 53. 54Henry VI 53, 11,61Henry VII (Tudor) 11,17, 67­

9,73,71,77- 9Henry VIII 67. 68-70, 73. 71­

7, 79,82,84,87Highlanders 21, 77, 96. Il l.

113. 149-10

H igh lands. Scc ms h 20. 22, 32.16, 116

hillfort s 6 . 7, 8Hill sborough Agreement (1985)

171Hitl er. Ado lf 164. 165- 6Holland see (!bt, Ne therlands andLow Cou ntries 95, 97. 117Hol ~· Land 25Hol~' Roman Empire 68.69,98homage 24- 25Hon g Kon g 173Hooke. Roben 99Howard . Ca rhcnne 68Huguenot s 99Hundred Years War 44. 53. 56.68, I7J

Ice Age 3. 4immigration. immigrant s 39.40, 98. 177. 178. 184

India 71, 97, 109, I/O, 117.129, 138, 141- 8, 113,167,172, 177- 8

Indian Mut iny 145Industr ial Revo lution 107. 121­9,1 37. 162, 178,180

industry 48, 84 . 121-3. 130.136, 114, 162, 164, 161. 169,178, 180

Ireland (and the Irish) 5,7.8.9.1 4,11, 18.19-21.32, 43,74-6,90,93,96,97, 104,113, 143, 149-10, 113, 163,171, 183

Irish Free State 163Iron Age 6Israel "169lralv 68. 79, 142, 161-7, 177

j acobinisrn 128jac obites 108 . 113[ er nes I (of Sco tland) 56[a mcs 11 (of Scotland) 56j arncs III (of Scotland) 56[ames IV (of Scotland) 77j ames V (of Scot land) 77[amcs VI (of Scotla nd) and I (of

England) 77. 78, 87-90, 93,96,98

[arnes VII (of Sco tland) and 11(o f Eneland) 94-97, 108.113

[arnes 111, the O ldPretender 108

[elhcoe. Admiral 160jews 39,99, 114, 143, 166- 7

Exchequer of 39jingoism 148John, King 27- 8, 29- 30.37johnson , Samuel 114[on son . Ben 85jury system 36Justice . Chief 88just ices of the peace (JPs) 61.62.80,81,82,83. 104, I11

j ures 11, 85Jutland. batt le of (1916) 160

Knrhcnnc of Valois 53Kc/Is. The: Book of 19

Kent 3, 11, 13. 48, 63. 71, 103Kerwa 172Kevnes. John Mavnard 161, 164Kirk. the Sco tt ish 77,78.88-

9.96,137Korea, No rth and South 168

Labour Exchang es 155Labour rnovernenr 125. 162.

169Labour Party 143. 156.159.

161-2,164, 169-70.176,179. 180. 182

Lancashi re 114. 113. 138.1 52.165

Lancastria ns 52. 55Langland. W illiam 64Latin 8, 15. 4 1, 49Laud. Will iam 89law and just ice 15. 35-6.61.68. 110

schoo ls 6 1League of Nations 166, 168.

172Leicester 9 . 177

earl of 30Lein srcr 19.20Levant Company 75Levellers 93. 98, 184Liberals 128. 134. 140. 141,

142, 143, 149, 110,1 11- 6,162,1 79, 180

Lindisfarne GosIJl!I /4Liverpoo l 107, 111, 114, 171,

I77Llewclvn ap Gruffvdd 30, 32Loc ke, Joh n 95Lollardv 49 - SOLondon 9, 10. IS, 16, 17, 21.28, 41, 71,81,82.84, 91,91.103,11 1,1 13, 114, Il l , 117,118, 128, 134. 138,1 61- 7,172, 171

Docklands 181Tower of 43.55, 82. 85, Il l,U nderground 158

Londonderry 76. 96. 97longbow 44Lord Mayor of London 41

Lord Mayor 's Show 183Lord Protector 92, 93Lords. House of 31, 40. 79.80,92,93, 134, 143, 156 _

Louis XIV (of France ) 93".97.99

Low Cou ntries see also Holland,Netherlands 39. 40 .68. 128.117

Lowlands, Sco tt ish 20. 56, 90.113, 116, 149

Loyalists, U lster 183Luddit es 123

MacDonald. Ram sav 179Macmillan , Harold 172Magn a Cane (12 15) 28. 29. 30,

31, 88Malaya (Mal aysia) 167Malplaqucr, banle of (1709) 97Manchester 84, 107. 114. 123.

134,14 3, 161

manor 13March. ea rl of 51, 52Margarer of Sco tla nd 33Margare t. daughte r of HenryVII 77

Marlborougb . duke of 97Marlee, W illiam 99Marlowc , C h rtstophcr 85Marshall Aid Programme 170Man. Kcrl t6 t. 162Mal')'. queen of Scots n. 77.78

Mal')' Sruart. queen 95-6Mal')" T udor . queen 70-2.73.

79Manlda. Qu een 26 , 71Ma yjlOi.tlCT 99Mediterranean 48 . 97. 131, 132Merchan t Adve ntu rers 60. 75Mcrcia IZMethod tsrn. Method ists 107.

121. 124-5. 137middle c lasses 61. 125. 139.

140. 143. 152. 156. 161- 2.164. 165

Midd le East 138. 145. 160. 167.172. 173

Midlands I I. 85. 107. 114.122. 123. 133. 134. 165. 182

Mill. John Sruan 162Milton . Joh n 99Monrfort . Simon de 30.31More, Sir Thomas 68. 85Muslims 25. 27,1 45. InMussolini . Bcntto 166

Napoleon Bonaparte 107. 127.128- 9. 131. 157. 161

Na poleo nic Wars 125-9.132. 173

Na sebv. banlc of (164 5) 91Nationa l Assistance Act

(1948) 169no", 73-75. 107. 109. 127.

128-9. 131. 157. 160Nelson . Horan o Lord 126- 7,

128- 9Nigh tinga le. Florence 145National Health Service 169Ncoltthic 4. 5Nethe rlands see also Holland .

Low Count r ies 56,68. 73. 85.97.98

Ne w Liberals 155-6. 169Ne w Stone Age see NeoluhicNe w Zealand 148. 153Newcastle 40. 84. 103. /54duke of 115

newspapers 10 1. 111-1 2. 145,160. 169

Newton . Sir lsaac 100Nonco nformists 95.99. 114.

120. 125. 140. 141. 149Norman 13.16.1 7.20,23.25.26.31. 32. 35. 37. 38. 39. 52.184

Nor mandy 16,1 7, 25. 28 , 34.37. 40. 44. 53

Nor seme n 21Nort h Africa 4. 167

Nort h A tlant ic TreatyO rganisat ion (NA TO) 168

Northe rn Ireland seealsoUlste r 150. 163. 164. 175. 183

Nor thumbria 12. 14. 20Notti ngham 12. 37.91. 128No rway 15. 21, 39

Ockham, Will iam of 99Offa. king of Mcrcta 12. 14

Dyke 12. 18Opium Wa rs 145Orange Lodges 113O range see W iIliam ofordeal, tr ial by 35-6O rkney Islands 4. S. 21O rleans, duke of 43O ttoman Empire see also

T urkey 145. 157O udenarde, battl e of (1708 ) 97Owe n. Roben 154O xford 40.41, 49. 61, 65. 99,

100.15 1. 162O xfordshire 83

Pain e, To m Il 2. 128Pakistan 142- 3. 177Pale 3ZPalestine 160. 172Palrnersron 142- 3.180Parliament see also Commonsand Lords 28. 30- 1. 39. 43.47. 61. 67.69.70.71.76.79.82. 87. 88- 90. 91.92 -6.1 07.108. no, I l l . 11 4. 117. 125.134. 141. 143. 156. 161- 2.163. 180. 182-3Parliament Act of 19 11 156Members of (MPs) 79. 80 .88. 92.93.94.95. 110. 117.1l 5. 143. 149. 156. 161.179- 82

Speaker of 80Sta re Ope ning of 183

Pamell , Cha rles 150Parr. Cathenne 70Passchendaele. batt le of(1917) 160

Peasan tsRevolt 48 - 9. 50Pecl . Sir Roberr 136. 14 1, 142.

143Pcnn , William 105. 119People's C harter (1838 ) 135Phi lip 11 (of Spain) 71, n.73.74. 79

Pie rs 20.2 1Pilgrim Fathers 99Pilgrimage of G race (1539) 82Pin the Elder. William seeCharharn

Pin the Younger . Wil1 iam /27,128

Plaid Cvmru 176Prime Minister. or igins 108Poiners, batt le of (1356) 44police 136. 164. 180Poor Laws 83, 118. 132Pope. Alexa nde r 100population 10. 38. 46, 48. 80 -

1. 84. 103. 114- 5. Ill . 133.1l4. 141. 149. 150

potatofaminc ( 1845- 7) 149Prc-Raphachr cs 155Prcsbvrerians 89. 95. 105Prot ectorate 9 3. 104Protestanti sm. Protestants 69-

72.76. 77- 79.85.89.90. 93.95.96.97. 98-9. 105. 107.11 3.149.150. 154.174 . 175.183

Prussia 109 . 129. 131Puritans 84.92 - 5.98. 120. 125Pyrenees 26

Q uakc rs 98.99. /02. 105. 114.115.1 19. 154.160

Quebec 109

radicals 112. 128. 134. 135.143. 149. 162

railway 138- 9Raleigb. Sir Waiter 74. 85Ramil lies, hatt leof( 1706) 97Reform Bill (1832) 134.1 42.

143(1867) 167

Reformation 68, 69- n. 76.77- 79.85. 105

Renaissance, 12th century 4115th/16th cen tury 79.85

Richard I (Coeur de Lion ) Z7-8. 40. 53

Richard 11 51Richard Ill . duke ofG loucester 55. 57

Right, Peti tion of (1628) 89Rights. Bill of (1689) 95Roben of No rmandy 25. 26Romans 4. 6.7- 10,1 3.1 5Rome see also C hurch.

Roman 33. 49. 79Roundheads 9 1Royal Soc iety 99. 100Royalists 91rural life 10. 12- 13. 37- 38 .47. 57. 60. 80- 81. 116- 8

RlLSSia seealso Soviet U nion 3.6.20. 129. 131. 1l2 . 142-3.157. 160. 162. 165.174

St Paul 's C athedral 100Salvation Arm y 155Saraievo 157Saxons 9 . 11-1 7. 21, 23. 32.35.37. 75. 85

Scand inavia 39. 75. 78schoo ls. boarding 120. 137elemental')' /5 /grammar 41, 85public 140.1 56

Scotland (and Scots) 4.5,7. 8.9. 11. 14. 18. 20- 21.23. 32.43-4.48. 52. 56. 61. 67. 72­3. 75. 88- 9. 90. 92. 93. 95.96. 98. 105. I ll. 114. 116.134. 1l8. 143. 149. 151. 153.154.176.1 82- 3

Sco tt ish Nat ionalist Party 176.182

Second Wor ld War (1939­45) 101. 159. 166- 7.169.17l

Index

Sett lement . Act of (1701) 96Seymour. Jane 70Sha kespea re. Willi am 55. 85Sheffield 11 4. 128. 133. 114shires 12. 31

shire reeve (sheriff ) 12Std nev , Algemon 95Sidnev, Sir Phi lip 85Singapore 131. 167slavery 74. 97 . 120. 125. 154Sm ith. Adam 154Soc ial Dernocranc Partv 179So mmc . ba nle of the (19 16)

160South Africa 157, 146South America see aho

A merica 73, 74. 109South Sea Companv (and

Bubble] 108Soviet Union see also

Russia 159.167. 168.174Spnn 67.68.69.71.72. 73.

77. 78. 84. 85. 97. 98. 109.128. 129.1 42. 159. 165.173.177

Speenb amla nd Act ( 1795) 118Spe nse r, Edmund 76.85Staple. Company of the 60Sta r Chamber, Court of 68Srephcn of Blots 26Stonehenge 2. 5. 6Strathclyde 20Sruarrs 87- 105. 107, 108. 113Sudan /46, 147Suez Ca nal 147. 157, 167, 169.

172suffragettes 162- 3Supremacy. Act of (I 5H) 69

Tara 5. 19Test Act (16 73) 94Thatcher , Margaret 174, 179.

183Thirty Years War (16 18- 48 )

88. 101Tolpuddlc Martyrs 134.154.

182To ries see also Conse rvat ive

Panv 94- 5. 107-8. 113. 128.134. 140. 141. 142. 143. 149.150

town and city life 8.9. 16. 39 ,40.4 1. 57- 9. 61. 82. 103.114. 140

trade unions 125. 134-5. 143,159.161. 162. 164

Tr ades Union Congress 143.164

Trafalgar. hanle of ( 1805) 126 ­7. 128

T roves 53Tudors 65.67-86.87. 104.

105. 11 7. /59Tull. jerhro 117Turkey see alsoO ttoman

Empire 131, 132. 142. 145.160

Tvle r, Wat 48,49, 50

Ulster 5. 18. 19. 76. 90, 97.113.163. 175

187

Index

Union Act, England andScotland (I707) 96

United Nations 168. 172, 173Security Council 168

United Stares seealsoAmerica 35. 149.150.156.157. 159. 165- 7. 168. 169­70. 173. 174. 183

universit ies 41, 56. 61, 65, 1StUtrecht. Treaty of (1713) 97

Valera. Eamon de 164Versailles. T reaty of (l9 19) 161Victoria. Queen 137,138, 144.

/48. 171Vikings 15- 17. 20. 21. 32. 39.85

voting seeelec toral polit ics

Wale5 (andthe Wchh) 3.4. 5.

188

7. 11. 12. 13. 14. 18. 19. 21.23.31.32. 43. 44.48.52.61.75.76.79. 81.11 4. 114. 135.143.149.1 51. 153.1 65. 175.178. 183Prince of 30. 32. 52, 75. 144

Wallace, William 33. -52Walpole. Robert IOB-9Warsaw Pacr 168Waterloo. batt leoi(1815) 129.

156Watt. j ames 121, 123Webb. Beamc e 162Webb.Sidney 152Wedgwood. [osiah 123welfare state 155-6. 169- 70Wellington. duke of 128- 9Wesley, John 123-5We5.<>Cx 12, 15. 17. 21west Africa 107. 109

We5[ Indtes 97. 108- 9, 117,125. 153. 177

Westminster 15. 16. 17. 23, 25.34. 35. 5 /. 90. 117. 183

Whigs 94.95, lOB . 11 0. 128.114.1 41.142Whitb~-, SynoJof (663) 14.21Wilkes. John 110-2, 125Wilkinson . John 121Willtam I (the Conqueror) 17.23. 25. 28. 29. H . 36

William 11 . Rufus H. 29William of Orange 87. 95. 97.

113Wilson, Wooorow 172Winchester 9. 25. 34,64Wind50f 45. 183\Vitan 12.16WOlliCY . Cardinal 69, 70women 8. 60. 62-3, 84- 5.

105. 119- 20. IH. 137. 161 .162-3. 178. 182. 184

working c lasses '-19, 153. 156.161 . 162. 164.165.171

Wren. Sir Chnstophcr 100, /0/Wyatr . Thomas 71Wycliffc. John 49.61Wykeham. Williamof 65

yeomanry regiments 128yeomen 47, 58. 81, 84. 104.

128York 9. 10.23. 30. 123duke of 55

Yorkists 52. 55Yorkshire 4, 37. 48.70, 114.

/51

Zimbabwe 173Zulus 147

An Illustrated Historyof Britain tracesthe development of the nation fromprehistoric times to the present day. Itlooksat British historynot merely intermsofkings,queensand battles, butalsoemphasises economic,social andintellectualforcesand how theseaffected the everydaylivesofpeoplefromdifferentsectionsofsociety.

An Illustrated HistoryofBritain is ahistoryofBritain, not just ofEngland.It looksat majordevelopmentswithinScotland, Walesand Ireland aswellastheir relationswith England.

ISBN D-582-74914-X

11 119 780582749146