History bridging tasks

Week 1- Preparation for the Tudors 1485-1558Background- Wars of the Roses

Watch the following two videos:

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SB_OThWd-eA 2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fG1NpCE1B5k

Complete the reading below:

The road to the throne

Henry VII had a chequered ancestry. His mother, Margaret Beaufort was descended from the great late 14th century magnate (wealthy and important individual) John of Gaunt, the Duke of Lancaster. John of Gaunt was the fourth son of King Edward III, and one of the leading men in the kingdom. However, after he married Katherine Swynford (his third wife), an Act of Parliament (a law) barred descendants of this union, known as the Beauforts, from becoming king or queen of England. Immediately, then, Henry VII was barred from being king, though he did at least have royal blood on this side and was technically of the House of Lancaster. His father had been Edmund Tudor, whose father Owen Tudor had been a smooth talking Welsh chamberlain who had married the French princess Katherine of Valois, wife of the dead Henry V. On both sides Henry VII had royal blood, but he was very unlikely to become king given his claim to the throne was so tenuous.

Indeed, when he was born in 1457, the likelihood of Henry becoming king was very remote. Henry VI reigned as king, and though the crown of England was not wholly secure, a young Welsh prince had little prospect of becoming king. In 1461, however, the Lancastrian king Henry VI (a fellow descendent of John of Gaunt, though from his first wife Blanche of Lancaster- you can see on the

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family tree above) was overthrown by Edward IV, a son of Richard, Duke of York (who was also descended from Edward III’s third son). A series of battles followed over the next few years, until Henry VI, who had managed to flee England, was able to return and become King of England once more in 1470. It was now Edward IV’s turn to flee England fearing for his life, but in 1471, he was able to return, and defeating Henry VI’s forces at the Battle of Tewksbury, became king once more. These conflicts have become known to history as the Wars of the Roses involving members of the House of York (because of the descent from Edward III’s son the Duke of York whose symbol was a white rose) and members of the House of Lancaster (because of their descent from Edward III’s son the Duke of Lancaster whose symbol was a red rose).

https://www.britannica.com/event/Wars-of-the-Roses/The-ascendancy-of-Warwick

Task

Use the website above (and others if you wish- there is lots of stuff out there) to complete a timeline of the major incidents of the period 1450-1471

You should include all the battles (St. Albans, Mortimer’s Cross, Towton etc.), periods of regency when Henry VI was ‘mad’, the rise (and fall) of York, changes in monarchy- I am not prescribing a list because I want to see you try to select what it is important

Week 2- Preparation for Russia 1855-1964

The Crimean War (1853-1856)

Watch the following videos:

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pqik0WDMDco 2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ro_HZC5oYqc 3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVas2Ax5UG0

Read the text below:

An uneasy peace- The Treaty of Vienna

At the end of the Napoleonic wars in 1815, the Great Powers assembled in Vienna to restore the European state system – a delicate balance between the various major and minor powers that restrained aggression by the mighty, and upheld the rights of the weak. They hoped to build a permanent peace by suppressing revolutionary republics and upholding stable, orderly monarchies. Despite the differing aims and ambitions of Russia, Prussia, Austria, Britain and France, a compromise was created, following the brief interruption of Napoleon’s ‘Hundred Days’ and the Battle of Waterloo.

After the Treaty of Vienna the great powers enjoyed three decades of peace, years in which industrial, political, economic, social and nationalist pressures were suppressed or deflected. But eventually the Vienna system broke down. The initial problem was the weakness of the Ottoman-Turkish empire, and the opportunities this provided for European interference in support of the Christian populations.

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The new president of France, Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte, exploited Turkish weakness to secure concessions for the Catholic church in Palestine. When Tsar Nicholas I of Russia retaliated, sending a mission to recover Greek Orthodox rights, the Turks simply gave way to both parties, and hoped the issue would go away.

Having established the Second Empire, (Louis) Napoleon III lost interest, but Nicholas decided to settle the ‘sick man of Europe’ once and for all. Expecting support from Prussia, Austria and Britain, he planned to carve up the European part of Turkey. He was mistaken, neither Britain nor Austria wanted to see Russia controlling the Dardanelles. Sensing an opening for a useful diplomatic success France joined Britain in support of Turkey, which rejected the Tsar’s outrageous terms.

Road to war

In July 1853, Russia occupied the Danubian Principalities (Moldavia and Walachia) to pressure Istanbul, but this threatened Austria’s economic lifeline - the Danube. For a ‘sick man’, Turkey proved remarkably dextrous and aggressive. Outwitting Austria, Britain and France, who still favoured a diplomatic settlement, they declared war in October 1853 and attacked the Russians.In late November, the Russian Black Sea fleet annihilated a Turkish squadron at Sinope. Britain, anxious to secure her trade with Turkey and access to India by maintaining the Ottoman regime, saw this as an insult and popular opinion made a vigorous response inevitable.

The French empire, for its part, was desperate for military glory and revenge for its defeat at the hands of Russia in 1812. For them, the Ottoman-Turkish empire was incidental. Britain and France demanded that Russia evacuate the Danubian Principalities, setting their ultimatum to expire in late March 1854 - the timing determined by the break up of the Baltic ice fields off Reval where the British hoped to annihilate part of the Russian Baltic fleet.

Britain always saw its main instrument for the coercion of Russia to be naval force in the north. After all, Russia’s capital was on the Baltic littoral, close to her other great security concern, Poland. The ultimatum expired and although the harbour at Reval was empty, the powerful Anglo-French fleet nonetheless took command of the Baltic, destroying the key fortress of Bomarsund in August 1854.

I. https://www.britannica.com/event/Crimean-War II. https://www.history.com/topics/british-history/crimean-war

III. http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/victorians/crimea_01.shtml IV. https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/battles/crimea/

Task

Read through the websites and make brief notes on the causes of the Crimean War. This will help you with future tasks.

Week 3- Tudors

Watch:

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeFRXB1LLYQ 2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3qER3Z3QyA

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Read the following:

This time, Edward did not make the mistake of allowing Henry to leave, and he was murdered in prison in May 1471. Wanting an end to these ruinous wars, Edward now resolved to bring them to a complete finish, although the only way to do so was to have every potential member of the House of Lancaster extinguished- including 14-year-old Welsh boys without any official claim to the throne! Knowing of the threat to their lives, in May 1471 Henry and his uncle, Jasper, were able to slip away from Tenby harbour in west Wales, sailing to Brittany where they were accepted as refugees. However, even in the relative freedom of a French dukedom, King Edward continued to make efforts to have Henry and Jasper returned to England. In 1476, he seemed to have been successful when the Breton duke, Francis, agreed to return Henry to England after receiving financial gifts and an assurance that Henry would be restored to his ancestral lands, given a good marriage and not harmed. Henry had actually made it to the port of St Malo, when he managed to feign illness and give his guards the slip before being saved at the last minute. It is unclear what would have happened to him had he returned to England, although it is certainly a possibility that he would have been executed, something he would only have been too aware of himself. Living like this, constantly on the run, and never sure he might not be sold to his death, can have done little for his ability to trust.

In 1482, Edward again made attempts to have Henry returned to England, and this time it probably was to restore him to his ancestral rights (while also enabling Edward to keep an eye on him). However, these plans were ruined by Edward’s untimely death in 1483. The throne now passed to Edward’s oldest son, also called Edward who became Edward V. Edward V’s reign was short lived, though, as his uncle, Richard seized the throne for himself and became King Richard III. Yorkists and Lancastrians were jointly horrified by the actions of Richard, and together, Margaret Beaufort (Henry’s mother) and Elizabeth Wydville (Edward IV’s wife and mother of Edward V) drew up a plan enlisting French support whereby the now late 20s Henry VII would invade England and face Richard III, aiming to usurp him from the throne.

By the start of August 1485, the plan was ready, and on 6th August, Henry and his force of French mercenaries landed at Milford Haven, on the Welsh coast. With forces joining both his and his commander Rhys ap Thomas’ men as they marched across Wales, on 22nd

August Henry’s forces drew up against Richard’s at Bosworth Field, just outside Leicester. After the Stanley brothers, prominent landowners with access to

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many men, leant their support to Henry at the last moment, his forces were able to defeat Richard, who was killed on the battlefield. It had been an extraordinary journey, but Henry, Earl of Richmond, a Welsh prince with almost no claim to the throne was now King of England. Taking the throne had been the easy part. Now he had to first establish himself as king, and then set about establishing the Tudor dynasty.

Task

Create your own descriptive report of the Wars of the Roses (an account of what happened) and the immediate prelude to Henry VII becoming king. Use my information, evidenced gleaned from the Jones documentaries and other reading. You will ultimately write about 2000 words, but just try to create a plan this week like you might if you were filling in an MPO.

You might use the following headings:

i. The build up to war 1450-1455ii. Early phases of war 1455-1459

iii. The kingmaker and the 1460siv. Changes to monarchy 1469-1470v. The finals years of the wars 1471-1483/5

All that is important is that you give a clear and coherent account of what was happening in the period.

Week 4- Russia and the Crimean War

Read the following:

Outbreak of war

At the outbreak of war, an allied army of 60,000 was already in Turkey to defend Istanbul. Austria then joined French and British demands that Russia evacuate the Danubian Principalities, whereupon Nicholas I actually agreed, thereby calling the allies' bluff. This forced the allied army, which had moved up to Varna on the Bulgarian coast, to change its strategy. By early August Austrian troops had created a neutral buffer between the combatants. With a powerful force in position, but ravaged by a cholera epidemic, the

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allies adopted a British plan to land in the Crimea, assault the naval base at Sevastopol and destroy the fleet and dockyard.

They expected this would take 12 weeks. In the event in took twelve months, three major land battles and countless actions between two large and well equipped armies deeply entrenched just outside the city. The battle of the Alma on 20 September 1854 was the first in which new rifled muskets were used, although only by the British and French. This advantage, in concert with superior skill, initiative and numbers, enabled the allies to drive the Russians out of a strong position north of Sevastopol.

They failed to follow up the blow by attacking Sevastopol directly, largely to avoid a rupture in allied command system, and marched around the city to begin a regular siege from the south. This allowed the Russians time to fortify the city, and stage two flank attacks from their field army, based in the central Crimea. The first, the Battle of Balaclava on 24 October, ended with the legendary British ‘Charge of the Light Brigade’, which was, although misguided, an astonishingly successful operation of war, with relatively light casualties - only 118 killed out of 620. The Russians were so frightened by the cold courage of the British troopers, they never again dared face them in the open field.

On 5 November, a major Russian attack at Inkerman was beaten back with massive losses by isolated British infantry units. A week later the weather broke, sinking transport ships, ruining vital roads and bringing the campaign to a standstill. Over the winter, the allies were joined by the Italian kingdom of Sardinia, which sent a useful army to secure British and French support for the expulsion of Austria from Italy.

Treaty of Paris

In the spring of 1855, the allies, heavily reinforced with French troops and employing improved logistics, began to batter their way into Sevastopol, and British gunboats cut Russian supply lines across the Sea of Azov.

After a last despairing counterattack in August, the Russians were resigned to defeat and evacuated the city following the storming of the vital Malakhov bastion by French troops on 9 September 1855. With that, the allies settled down to destroy the docks and tinker at the margins of the Russian empire. The Russians, for their part, took the Turkish city of Kars and held off Circassian Shi'ite rebels.

In the Baltic, the allies had demolished the fortress and arsenal of Sweaborg, outside Helsinki, in August, and threatened Cronstadt and St Petersburg. With France anxious to end the war and harvest the prestige of victory, Britain needed a strategy to ensure the Russians accepted the demilitarisation of the Black Sea and the European settlement of the Turkish question. The massing of naval forces for an attack on Cronstadt-St Petersburg backed up allied demands, and in early 1856 Russia accepted an Austro-French initiative.

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Further afield, the allies had also attacked Russia in the White Sea and the Pacific, but it was the heroism and blunders of the Crimea, along with the pioneering nursing work of Florence Nightingale and others, that came to dominate the literature. The Baltic, where so many key events took place, was ignored, because the casualties were minimal.

At the Treaty of Paris, signed on March 30, 1856, Russia returned southern Bessarabia and the mouth of the Danube to Turkey; Moldavia, Walachia and Serbia were placed under an international rather than a Russian guarantee; the Sultan promised to respect the rights of his Christian subjects; and the Russians were forbidden to maintain a navy on the Black Sea, or refortify Bomarsund.

Human cost

In military terms, the war was a midway point between Waterloo and World War One. The armies employed Napoleonic uniforms and tactics, but improved weapons. It emphasised the overriding importance of logistics, entrenchments and firepower, anticipating the experience of the American Civil War (1861-1865).

In addition it saw the first military use of many innovations, such as armoured warships, the intercontinental electric telegraph, submarine mines and war photography. American experts were quick to visit the Crimean, and published a full report on ‘The Art of War in Europe’ in 1861, just in time to shape their own conflict.

The human cost was immense, 25,000 British, 100,000 French and up to a million Russians died, almost all of disease and neglect. The human aspect of the conflict was recognised in Britain by the introduction of the highest decoration for gallantry. Unlike other medals, the Victoria Cross was awarded to officers and men without distinction. It has long been believed that all Victoria Crosses are made from a captured Russian bronze gun, seized at Sevastopol, but the cannon in question was in fact Chinese.

A new Europe

More fundamentally, the Crimean War witnessed the collapse of the Vienna Settlement, the system that had enabled Austria, Britain, France, Prussia and Russia to cooperate and maintain peace for three decades. Russia lost the war and with it the myth of Russian might, the legacy of 1812, was shattered.

The other big loser would be neutral Austria. Within a decade it had been expelled from territory held in Germany and Italy and forced to enter into a dual-monarchy with Hungary, formerly a subject province. Multinational empires were on notice - the 19th century was an age of nations. Britain was unable to balance the new system, and the European Great Powers finally returned to war in 1914.

The shock of defeat forced Russia to adopt a programme of sweeping internal reforms and industrialisation under Tsar Alexander II, who came to throne in early 1855. Elsewhere, Russia’s defeat facilitated the unification of Germany under Prussian control. While France became the dominant military land power in Europe, this was a temporary situation and one that Prussia (Germany) overturned in 1870-1871.

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Sardinian intervention ensured the kingdom a central role in the unification of Italy. The Crimean War laid the foundations for two powerful new nation states - Italy and Germany - states that would be united and secured in short, limited conflicts. The new six-power European system proved less stable than its predecessor, while the expectation that political and diplomatic aims could be satisfied by war led these states to adopt ever closer alliances.

Ultimately, Britain was unable to balance the new system and the European Great Powers finally returned to war in 1914, ninety-nine years after the Vienna Settlement. The Crimean War was a decisive turning point in European history, marking the end of the Vienna settlement, and the beginning of a new system.

Task

Describe the causes, events and consequences of the Crimean War. Use the documentaries on the Crimean War, what I’ve written and the websites above to write a summary around about 1,000 – 2,000 words

You have this week and week 6 to complete this task

Week 5- Tudors and the Wars of the Roses

Complete your account of the Wars of the Roses from week 3- remember the aim is for about 2000 words

Week 6- Russia and the Crimean war

Complete your task from week 4

Week 7

Read the following:

England under Henry VII

Society and social structure- today

One of the things that people often find difficult about understanding the Tudor period (and the early modern period in general) is that it is so different to our lives and times today. To help explain this, it might help to think about modern society (by which we mean the community of people that live today) first. It is very diverse- we have rich people, poor people and everything in between. Traditionally, society was divided into classes- there were the working classes (so those who worked in manual jobs, such as in factories or on farms), then the middle classes (perhaps doctors and lawyers, maybe teachers) and finally the upper classes (what we call the aristocracy). It was possible to be upper working or lower upper class depending on where you were, what you did etc., but these categories were fairly fixed. By 2019, these classes have broken down somewhat, but they broadly still exist- a cleaner or someone that worked at McDonald’s would probably be thought of as working class, a doctor as middle class. The key thing here, however, is that this isn’t rigid and is the same wherever you are in the country (to illustrate, I have a friend that works for Lloyds Insurance

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Group and earns over £100,000 a year. He went to Durham University. He insists he is working class. Very few would see him as such, but who ultimately decides? It really isn’t clear). Society is organised by a government, which sets the limits of what people are allowed to do (laws) and provides services for people (like schools, police and hospitals) which are paid for by taxes which are set by the government. The government, in turn, is selected from Parliament which is elected by people over the age of 18 at least once every five years.

So we have a vision of society, then, where people work and belong to a class (although that class is in no way fixed), elect a Parliament from which a government is selected, which then decides what services it wants to provide and taxes people to pay for them. Society also has to make sure that the laws that Parliament makes are judged- for this we have the judiciary (judges and juries) who rule on whether someone has broken the law and how they should be punished if they have.

Society and social structure between 1485 and 1558 in the countryside

In some respects, England in the 15th and 16th century was fairly similar. A society existed, and it was divided into segments similar to the idea of the class system. In the Middle Ages (around 1066-1485), England had had a highly stratified ‘Feudal System’ whereby people belonged to one of four classes- you were either a peasant (which the vast majority of people were), a knight, a noble (also known as the aristocracy or nobility) or king. By the end of the 14th century this rigid system had started to break down with people no longer so firmly belonging to that ‘class’, but its remnants remained. In 1500, most people lived in the countryside (between 80 and 90% of England’s maybe 2.3-2.5m population in 1500). The most important people in the countryside tended to be landowners who might not actually live there. In the Middle Ages, England had been divided up into manors (large areas of land) which were then held by either members of the nobility or gentry and this system of land ownership largely still existed by the time of the Tudors. The number of members

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of nobility varied in number across the Tudor period (falling to as low as 35 at the end of the reign of Henry VII) and besides the monarch, they were the most important people in society. Generally speaking, they would be related to the monarch to some degree or at least from a family with historic royal connections. As the most important people in society, they would own the most land- so much, in fact, that they might own it without ever actually venturing there! Discarding the land owned by the Church (discussed below), 90% of England was owned by the monarch or nobility! However, that there were so few nobles meant that there was lots of land that was owned by lower classes (but not the low classes!). Below the nobility were the gentry and the gentlemen. They would own the land and would be more likely to spend time around their manors- there were perhaps 4500 gentry families by the 1520s. A good example of a gentry family would be the Pakingtons who owned Harvington Hall at the end of the 11th century- they were wealthy and influential, but not right at the top of society. Those landowners who held land were then expected to help maintain law and order in their local area- there was no form of police force, and ultimately they were often held responsible for outbreaks of crime. This system broke down across the reign of Henry VII (as you will learn) but that landowners were ultimately responsible was a principle that still existed decades later. It is also worth pointing out at this point that many members of the gentry and nobility didn’t actually live in the countryside- they would often spend time with the monarch at ‘court’- the notion of court simply means the monarch’s household, which might be full of people

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who ‘lived’ with the king or queen, generally made up of the most important people in society. To spend time at court was a sign of one’s importance.

Beneath the nobility and gentry were the skilled workers who might include bakers, cartwrights (people who made carts- a wright is someone who makes something such as a shipwright), carpenters, weavers, brewers, tanners etc. whereas unskilled workers would be primarily labourers who would sell their labour on a daily basis- they might carry bricks, or help bring in the harvest. These are what we would think of as workers- almost the working class of the class system. As we will discuss below, most of England’s industry at this point (1485-1600) was based from agriculture, and therefore by far the most common professions in the countryside were based around this. Some farmers, known as yeomen, were able to become rich from owning extensive lands and might aim to move up through society. They were not truly workers, but nor did they belong to the middle classes. They were something else entirely.

Finally at the bottom of society were the beggars and vagrants. Unemployment today symbolises that someone cannot find work. Generally speaking, people today are able to find some sort of work although it is often low paid. When they can’t, the government steps in to provide support in the forms of benefits which help them while they find work. In the 15th and 16th century, no such support existed. If the weather was bad, or there was a poor harvest, or the economy was simply slowing down, it was not uncommon for people to not be able to find work. Once they were unemployed for three consecutive days, they were classed as a vagrant. As you will learn, Tudor society took a very dim view of people that belonged to this class- its response was to punish rather than to help.

Society and social structure between 1485 and 1558 in the urban environment (towns and cities)

Towns, where approximately 10-20% of the population of England lived, were somewhat different from the countryside in terms of how they were structured. They were also not what we would think of as towns today. In 1500, England had just one town with a population of more than 10,000 (London) and many of the great cities we might think of today such as Manchester or Birmingham, were little more than small villages at this point. In fact, the most prominent urban centres were not what we might typically guess- towns such as Norwich thrived, but mainly due to its position as coastal town with a port. Towns generally had an elected mayor who was responsible for its government (different from the countryside, where responsibility resided with the local lord) and usually had walls which marked the town boundary. The rigid structure whereby a noble or member of the gentry was ultimately in charge did not really exist, and instead towns were divided into citizens, labourers and vagrants. Those who made up the citizens were like the skilled workers in the countryside- people such as lawyers, wealthy merchants, brewers, tanners, blacksmiths etc. The key was having a skill, and increasingly in the period after the late 15th century we see an emerging middle class in the towns of newly educated people able to climb through society, usually as lawyers. Below the citizens were the labourers, who much like in the countryside, relied on seasonal work and being able to sell their labour. When they were unable to, they often slipped into vagrancy.

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Europe and the world

In 1485, England was a relatively small, impoverished country on the edge of the known world. There were three great European powers- the King of France, the King of Poland and the Holy Roman Emperor*, and a recent marriage between the Queen of Castille (Isabella/ Isabella of Castille) and the King of Aragon (Ferdinand of Aragon) had united two of the Spanish kingdoms to create a King of Spain. All these countries greatly outstripped England in terms of wealth and power. They earnt more, could spend more on arms and were seen as more prestigious. Indeed, they were increasingly taking an interest in overseas affairs in a way in which England simply didn’t. Since the start of the 15 th century Portugal had been sending sea faring adventurers abroad seeking trading opportunities with India. Spain had recently got involved and in 1492 would sponsor a voyage by the Genoese sailor Cristofero Colombo (known to history as Christopher Columbus) which would ultimately discover the New World (the Americas and Caribbean). But in England, there were none of these concerns. The English king technically still had a claim to be King of France, but there was no realistic way an English king could hope to actually press this claim in 1485!

*The Holy Roman Empire broadly matches up to what we think of as Germany today. It was made up of a number of powerful mini kingdoms known as electorates that elected an emperor. This emperor was known as King of the Franks (an ancient Germanic people that also lived in modern France) who, upon travelling to Rome and being crowned by the pope, existed as the Holy Roman Emperor. By 1485, the Holy Roman Emperor was always a member of the powerful Habsburg (sometimes spelled Hapsburg) family who dominated the position until the 18th century!

Religion and the English

In terms of their actual existences as human beings, people in the 15th and 16th century were not so different to how they are today. They needed food and shelter and they craved company and entertainment. In the countryside, this was largely the remit of the Church. In 1485, everyone in England identified as a Christian, the vast majority of whom identified as Roman Catholic seeing the pope in Rome as the nearest link to God. It came to the pope to appoint the cardinals (almost like the executives on a management board today) and also the archbishops in each province (there were two in England- York and Canterbury). Moreover, the pope also appointed bishops who were responsible for a large area known as a diocese (e.g. Worcester) although he was not responsible for appointing parish priests (a parish was the smallest area of Church division).

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For the most part, people still believed all the Church taught- its seven sacraments (most important teachings) including purgatory, the importance of grandly decorated churches, saying prayers for the dead, confession and atonement for sin. At the end of the 14th century a small group, known as the Lollards, had appeared who were critical of the Catholic Church, but they had been dealt with, and by the start of the 16th century there was barely any dissent.

People paid taxes directly to Rome in the form of a tax known as a tithe and the Church had its own courts for crimes seen as being religious in nature or affecting Churchmen. Priests also paid a sum of money to Rome in the first year after they were ordained (qualified) known as annates while other Church courts dealing with finances also existed. In essence, the Church existed as a powerful organisation that existed almost alongside the government of England- it was not totally independent

as it was elsewhere in Europe, but nonetheless retained a great deal of independence.

However, returning to the beginning of this section, it was the Church’s social role that made it so important in the 16th century. Monasteries, of which there were many, were centres of learning that provided alms (almost like social security) for those in need, be it through sickness or unemployment. Churches themselves played a huge role in the communities- they organised holy days (of which there were over 100 every year) as well as feasts, plays and festivals. It was through the Church that people enjoyed much of their social contact, and in this respect, the Church was critical to daily life in 1485.

Industry and the economy in the 15 th and 16 th century

The English economy in 1485 was highly dependent on agriculture. This was a pre-industrial society, meaning products were not made in factories. Most people worked in farming, with arable farming (crops) most common in the south and pastoral (sheep) most common in the north. The wool from sheep would be turned into cloth, for which England had a particularly high international reputation. It would be produced in England and then exported via cloth markets in the Low Countries (Belgium and the Netherlands) with the market at Antwerp being hugely important to the English economy. Whilst other industries existed, agriculture and cloth were critical from 1485-1558.

The legacy of the Wars of the Roses and Henry VII

The Wars of the Roses ended in 1485 with the Battle of Bosworth in 1485 and Henry VII’s accession as king, but it is important to understand the world he stepped into (beyond what you have read above). The wars had come about, at least to some degree, because members of the nobility had been able to become sufficiently powerful to challenge the power and authority of the king. Nobles, such as Richard of Warwick, had used their great land holdings to raise huge personal armies. If you consider what you have read above, you should remember that most of the land in England was owned by members of the nobility. On this land were many workers, many of whom could be

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employed by the landowner. These employees of the landowner were known as retainers, who would be equipped with that person’s livery (personal symbol). They could be employed by their lord in all sorts of ways, but most significantly, they could be given arms and turned into an army. This process, known as bastard feudalism, meant that many of the great magnates of England prior to 1485 had been able to furnish themselves with their own private armies. It was these armies that fought in the wars that came to be known to history as the Wars of the Roses.

Henry VII was a usurper. He was not meant to be king, and had taken the throne by conquest. He had no experience of English society, and had not been a great landholder like other members of the nobility. Now he was about to become king. All this meant that Henry was to face a number of significant challenges. Those he had defeated, or their relatives, might want revenge. Foreign powers, seeing his weakness, might choose to invade. England had no money and he had no experience of government, and nor did his friends from exile. England had a recent history of nobles who were so powerful they could directly challenge the power of the king. Over the first few lessons of the course in September, you will learn how Henry dealt with these challenges.

Task

Describe Europe and England as it was in 1485. This should be your own account of the following areas:

i. Religionii. Societyiii. The nations of Europeiv. Industry and the economy

Again, use my information as a basis, but you should write your account in your own words and use your reading to help you. Aim for 2000-3000 words

The following websites may help:

https://www.historyonthenet.com/the-tudors-societyhttps://www.english-heritage.org.uk/learn/story-of-england/medieval/religion/

But there is plenty more besides on the internet

You have this week and week 9 to complete this task.

Week 8- Russia

Read the following:

Russia in 1855

GeographyIn 1855, the Russian Empire was huge. It covered 6,000 miles from the Baltic Sea in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east and 2,000 miles from north to south. The process of expansion and conquest had not quite been finished yet. Within Russia there was an enormous diversity of climate,

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physical features and vegetation. These different environments force Russia’s peoples to adopt a huge range of differing life-styles to survive in the varying surroundings its people could find themselves in. Here are some examples (use the map to help):

The city of Yakutsk. In winter, temperatures could reach -60 degrees centigrade and, in the summer, almost 40 degrees centigrade.

Another example would be northern Siberia there are only two brief summer months during which vegetation could grow.

Yet on the coast of the Black Sea, a sub-tropical climate is present, where oranges, lemons and vines for wine can grow.

To the extreme north is treeless arctic tundra, where only mosses and lichens are able to grow.

St Petersburg, the capital at the time, lies on the same latitude as most of Alaska, meaning harsh winters.

Finally, around the Caspian Sea there is a large desert or semi-desert area, making up about 20% of Russia’s total area.

The difficult climate and terrain in many of these areas made human life almost impossible 150 years ago. As a result, most of the population was concentrated west of the Ural Mountains (see map) on the more fertile East European Plain. Here too were Russia’s largest cities, the capital St Petersburg and Moscow. However, only a tiny proportion of the Russian population lived in towns or cities of over 100,000 inhabitants- 1.6% in 1855.

Who lived in the Russian Empire?

The population of the Russian Empire rose rapidly in the second half of the 19 th Century. The census of 1897 showed the different nationalities in the Russian Empire of 126 million people. These included:

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There were still many smaller national groups, each with their own language, culture, religion and traditions. The Tungus, for example, led a life following the reindeer herds as they roamed across Northern Siberia in search of pasture. The Jews in Russia, forming the largest single Jewish community in the world, were particularly harshly treated. They were restricted to the Jewish Pale of Settlement (see map above) and were not allowed to live in Russia proper. They also faced restrictions in their education.

Well over 100 different languages were spoken in Russia in the middle of the 19 th Century. This created problems for the Tsars, since some of these people wished to have their own government rather than be ruled from St Petersburg. The government’s response to national feeling was to try to stamp it out. Russian was the language of the courts and higher education. The Orthodox Church (more on this below) was introduced into all areas of the Tsar’s empire, Russian nobles were encouraged by land grants to settle in non-Russian territories. In 1830, when the Poles revolted against Russian rule, Tsar Nicholas I cancelled their liberal constitution and absorbed Poland into Russia itself.

The Russian economy

Peter the Great (1682-1725) and Catherine the Great (1762-1796) had tried desperately to modernise Russia, but seemed to have had little success. The Russian population was growing rapidly throughout the 19th Century. In 1855 it stood about 70 million, if all Russian territories are included. By 1897 it had risen to 126 million. Given the harsh winters and short growing period in many areas of Russia, its backward farming methods and the poor quality of much of Russia’s soil, the growth of population placed an increasing strain on limited resources. Any bad harvests had a devastating effect on the rural poor. Grain was by far the most important Russian export, accounting for about 40% of total value. In the main she exported raw materials and imported finished goods from Europe and further afield. Trade was made difficult by the fact that Russia in 1855 did not have one port that was ice-free for all of the year.

In many European countries, the 19th Century was a period of rapid industrial growth. In 1800, Russia had been the world’s greatest producer of pig-iron, but by 1855 Britain produced 10 times more. Austria produced more cast iron. At the beginning of the 19th Century, Russian iron smelting accounted for 1/3 of the world’s iron production and it exported 50,000 tons a year, mainly to Britain. Russia faced great difficulties in matching the pace of industrialisation, because it had an underdeveloped banking system, making investment difficult, and it lacked a pool of labour for new industries. This may appear odd in view of the growing population, but most of this was tied to the villages by serfdom. Most Russians were so poor that there was very little demand at home for industrial products. After bad harvests when food prices shot up, demand for manufactured goods collapsed.

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Communications and transport difficulties also hampered development. By 1860, Russia had about 1600 km (1000 miles) of railway, compared to Britain’s 15,000 km (9375 miles). The railway link between St Petersburg and Moscow opened in 1851, after much opposition. Nicholas I (the Tsar at the time) ensured that it was built. Given the fact that Russia’s roads were also little more than mud tracks in many areas, these transport problems were formidable, making the transport of raw materials and finished goods difficult at the best of times but almost impossible during the spring thaw and autumn rains. Russia’s great rivers provided important arteries for trade, but of course they were frozen for many months.

Much of the industrialisation that had happened by 1855 was due in the most part to foreign companies investing in Russia. The most significant developments in the first half of the century had been made in textiles, where one British manufacturer controlled most of the factories in Russia. In total there were about 15,000 industrial enterprises, employing over 800,000 workers. Much of the power in the factories was supplied by water, not steam like most of Europe at the time.

There was one area of significant progress during the first half of the 19th Century. This was the cotton industry. It developed rapidly, using technology brought from Britain. The Russian cotton industry was able to expand firstly because the Napoleonic wars protected the home industry from British competition, and further high tariffs were created in 1822. Secondly, after 1815, it was able to buy cheap yarn and later cheap spinning machines from Britain, because it suited the British to allow them to do so. Finally it benefited from being a new industry, which therefore suffered less from traditional restrictions. By 1850, the Russian cotton industry had become the fifth largest in the world. Even though, however, total production was not much above 10% of the British production.

In simple terms, the Russian economy was in relative stagnation by 1855. This was mainly down to the Russian state itself. Trade and industry took place in the traditional way, largely by means of the royal appointment of monopolies. A competitive business economy had not yet developed. Most domestic trade was carried out through the antiquated system of fairs (large markets- often yearly), which were still responsible for the majority of internal trade until the 1860s. Both the state and private banking systems were weak and unstable, and money was scarce and subject to severe fluctuations in value. It was still very difficult to invest in companies and therefore to find capital for expansion and development. Thus the atmosphere, the freedom and the infrastructure, which encouraged rapid economic growth in Western Europe and America at the time, simply did not exist in Russia meaning that the Russian economy kept falling behind.

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How society was organised?

Russia was a rural state. About 96% of the population lived in the countryside. The vast majority of these were peasants. Out of the 60 million people in European Russia in 1855, 50 million were peasant serfs. Roughly half were owned by the landowners and the other half by the government. In simple terms, they were slaves. At the end of the 18th Century, the gentry (another name for the landowners) had been confirmed in their right to physically punish or send into the army the peasants they owned. Peasants either performed barschina (labour) for their landlord or paid him obrok (cash). In return, they received a house, a garden and a share of the crops grown on the common fields. Life for the peasants was hard. They could be sold and brutally flogged on top of their backbreaking daily work. A report of 1860 stated that the staple diet of peasants was cabbage soup, rye bread and gruel made from wheat or millet and milk. Their house were little better than huts, often with only one room they shared their animals.

It would be wrong to generalise too much about the condition of the peasantry. Some serfs lived very comfortably, depending on the fertility of their soil and the harshness of their climate. As in medieval England, the landlord’s permission was necessary for any change in a serf’s life, such as getting married or leaving the village. Peasants also owed loyalty to their Mir (village community). It was responsible for collecting the poll tax paid by all adult males, and also had to choose soldiers for the army when ordered. The Mir was responsible for dividing up the open fields (see map to right) between families, and redistributing them when it became necessary, if families increased in size. Open field farming in strips and serfdom made the introduction of new farming methods unlikely. What incentive did a landlord have to try to farm more efficiently when his labour force cost him nothing? How could an individual peasant try new methods when farming was done co-operatively in the open fields? Most importantly of all, there was no incentive for serfs to produce more than they could consume themselves, for there was no one to buy it.

Thus, agriculture and village life continued as it had for centuries. The limit of the serfs world was his village boundary and the nearest market. Life expectancy was poor- only about 35 years in the second half of the 19th Century. The only escapes from the anxieties and hardship of ordinary life were in the solace of religion and the bottle. Illiteracy also made it almost impossible for peasants to change their lives and prospects.

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However, the system was supported by many of the upper class. Many landlords were heavily mortgaged to finance the life in their manor houses to which they felt entitled. One third of the land and two thirds of the peasants were mortgaged to the state bank or other noble banks in 1859. This forced nobles to sell off their assets little by little. Few took any real interest in their estates but left them in the hands of managers and bailiffs.

Some of the leading members of the nobility were fabulously wealthy, living in palaces in St Petersburg and Moscow (like the pictures on the right) and owning thousands of acres of land, mines and forests. Working your way up in the Tsar’s service was one certain way to financial success. The royal family was very generous to its servants.

Russia had only a small middle class of professional people- doctors, lawyers, university teachers. However, the interest in the Enlightenment in Western Europe encouraged an expansion of Russian culture in the 19th Century. Travel abroad in the early years of the century had made many writers and educated people critical of backward Russia. This growing criticism spread through some of the officer class and resulted in the Decembrist Rising in 1825. Six hundred members of the leading noble families were put on trial after this collapsed.

When Nicholas I restricted passports, making foreign travel almost impossible, in order to try to stop the spread of democratic ideas. Education was similarly restricted. When Nicholas I died in 1855, less than 1% of the population as enrolled in schools, and there were only 3,500 students enrolled in Russia’s six universities. He had also introduced an increasing censorship of publications and even the examination of personal letters by his Third Section (Secret Police). In 1848, liberal revolutions broke out throughout Europe. Nicholas I responded to this by increasing repression. Indeed fear was perhaps the overriding theme of royal government. The standing army in 1850 was over 1 million, and this in a country normally at peace. There remained a great distance between the monarchy and the peasantry on the one hand and the forward-looking, free-thinking educated classes on the other.

Religion in Russia

Faith, especially in the Orthodox Church, was everywhere in European Russia. These churches (like picture on the right) still dominate the skylines of many towns and villages in Russia today. Every simple

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peasant home had a corner with a religious icon in it. These icons played an important part in the ceremonies of family and national life, being brought out to bless marriages and baptisms, as well as armies going off to fight. Religious celebrations also determined the nation’s holidays, of which there were 90 per year according to some estimates.

The Orthodox Church was not independent of the State, but was controlled by the Holy Synod, chaired by a government minister. The Tsar, Tsarevich (the Tsar’s son) and their wives all had by law to be members. The Tsar had absolute power over Church finance and appointments. Priests received their meagre wages from the State, which they supplemented by working in the fields alongside their parishioners and by charges for their services. Only they could register births, marriages and deaths. The members of the many monasteries were often materially better off, and only they were allowed to rise up the Church’s hierarchy. The Church was a strong pillar supporting the government, emphasising to all in society the importance of obedience to authority, whether it was political or religious. Much evidence suggests that religious belief was a profoundly held conviction for most Russians at the time.

For many Russians there was a strong element of mysticism in these religious beliefs. Millions of Orthodox Christians, the Old Believers, had broken with the official Church, when it introduced new services in the 17th Century. They said that the Orthodox Church was acting as the agent of the Antichrist. Many of these, and other Orthodox believers, fasted regularly, and consulted ‘holy men’ for advice about their problems. Some of these ‘holy men’ wandered around Russia begging, relying on the charity of believers to support them. Some even claimed to have healing powers.

The Orthodox Church was a strong support for the Russian status quo. By preaching blind obedience to God, it encouraged blind obedience to social superiors and ultimately the Tsars. The decorations within the churches themselves were bound by rigid rules. No other religious groups, however, were treated so sympathetically by the State. Jews were subject to rigorous controls, which restricted their employment and where they lived. In particular, they were subject to random but murderous attacks from their Christian neighbours called pogroms- often with the tacit support of the government. It was preferable, after all, to have Russians attacking Jews rather than attacking the government itself.

The Tsar and his family

At the top of society stood the Tsar and his family. The whole of social life for the upper classes revolved around the royal court. The daughters of the nobility were introduced at court. Great banquets and balls were held throughout the year in the royal palaces.

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For most of the year, the Tsar lived at the Winter Palace (see right) in St Petersburg but would often visit the Kremlin (see next page) in Moscow along with other palaces in the countryside and by the sea in the Crimea. The members of the royal family were educated to believe in their divine mission to rule Russia. The Romanov family (the Tsar and his family) was wealthy. It was believed that it was one of the richest families in the world, and it is estimated that the personal fortune of Nicholas II when he ascended the throne in 1894 was almost $20 billion, of which $1 billion was held in gold. He personally owned 150 million acres. Although, it must be noted that the British royal family at the time was far richer.

The Tsar believed in Autocracy. Autocracy in Russia was autocracy in its purest form. All policy and decision-making lay in the hands of the Tsar. The Tsar expected, and for the most part received, the willing and total submission of his subjects. All his subjects were theoretically equal before him. His task was to be the strong ‘father’, who loved all his ‘children’ equally, who punished them when necessary, who kept order and who protected the fatherland from external threat. In turn, the Tsar was subject to God, and was responsible to Him for the spiritual and physical well-being of the people.

Most critics of the regime did not question the idea of autocracy but rather focused on corrupt or inefficient officials or landlords. Even the serfs tended to see the Tsar as their ‘little father’, who was merely misled by his advisers. The size, nature and scope of the Russian Empire provides part of the answer for this. The task of ruling and defending such a vast and sprawling country, which possessed no effective natural defences was not an easy one. It was made up of numerous nationalities. Russia needed a strong government as the danger of invasion deemed always to be present. The fact that the Tsar always appeared to be distant meant that the people in charge of the local area were more likely to get the blame than him. The Orthodox Church’s teachings also ensured that the people were constantly taught that the Tsar’s authority was not to be challenged.

Task

Having read the information, watch these films:

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYfXWlflaws&list=PLT2q181SVLgqLDwPJQ9TkyQfpu- pDD5-t&index=7

2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSlVgtwAcRA&list=PLT2q181SVLgqLDwPJQ9TkyQfpu- pDD5-t&index=8

And use the following websites:

1. https://www.britannica.com/place/Russia/Russia-from-1801-to-1917 2. https://www.britannica.com/place/Russia 3. https://spartacus-educational.com/RussiaIssues.htm

Describe Russia in 1855. This should be in your own words and focus on the following areas:

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I. Land and Climate II. The Peoples of Russia

III. The Economy of RussiaIV. How society was organisedV. Religion

VI. The TsarUse what I’ve written as the focus for these tasks, but you should use the wider reading and what you learn from the documentaries to help. Your sections should add up to around 1,500-2,000 words.

You will have week 10 to finish

Week 9

Complete your task on early Tudor England from week 7

Week 10

Complete your task on Russia from week 8

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