History of the Kingdom of England

History of the Kingdom of England covers the period from the Norman invasion in 1066 and the conquest of the south-eastern part of the island of Great Britain, to create, on the basis of the Act of Union of 1707, the United Kingdom of Great Britain.

Timeframe

History of England resulted in the arrival of the first humans on the islands thousands of years ago. That's what today is England, part of the United Kingdom, was inhabited by Neanderthals about 230 thousand. BC and the first men of the species Homo sapiens appeared 29 thousand. years ago.

Prehistory and Antiquity

In the year 43 N. E. Roman Emperor Claudius took Camulodunum created the province of Britain, ending the first phase of the conquest of the British Isles, the Romans ruled England until the early fifth century.

After the withdrawal of the 407 of the Roman legions, the British Isles arrived about 450 Germanic tribes: the Angles, Saxons and Jutes who fairly quickly organized in Britain several pagan kingdoms patrimonial. Over time left them seven Kent, inhabited by Jutes, Wessex, Sussex and Essex inhabited by the Saxons and the East of England, Mercja and Nortum-bria inhabited by the Angles.

At the end of the VIII century, England began to invade and conquer the Normans. In the second half of the ninth century, the effective resistance could only attend Alfred the Great, ruler of the kingdom of Wessex, who united the Anglo-Saxons, Normans, he had to give up the northern part of the country. The Normans after decades assimilated with the local population.

Norman invasions

In 1066, died childless king Edward the Confessor. Although the throne was passed to Harold Godwinson’s, son-dead king, pretensions to the crown of England also presented Prince William of Normandy, called William the Conqueror. William the Conqueror crossed the English Channel and declared war on Harold Godwinson. With his victory at Hastings October 14, 1066 he ascended the throne of England.

In the twelfth century, as a result of the war of succession to the throne of England, Henry II Plantagenet ascended, great-grandson of William the Conqueror. After the marriage of Eleanor of Aquitaine Henry II Plantagenet became the head of the giant territory. Henry II Plantagenet was thus the most powerful vassals of the French Capetian dynasty, much more powerful than the king of France. Henry II Plantagenet was remembered as a ruthless ruler of the firm and seeking to undermine the position of the barons.

Plantagenet dynasty

Successive rulers led to the conquest of Wales and Scotland take fief. After the childless death of the French king Philip IV Beautiful crown of France reminded Edward III, which was the beginning of the Hundred Years War in 1337. Lack of acceptance for the English of the French population, the activity of Joan of Arc and the Dauphin Charles VII, however prejudge the final failure of England in the Hundred Years' War which ended in 1453.

The unexpected result of the Hundred Years War for England was the outbreak of a new conflict - the War of the Roses in the years 1455-1485. Henry VI inherited from his grandfather, King Charles VI of France mental illness. Decline in the authority of the king contributed to the undermining of the rights Lancester’s to the crown, by which sought another branch of the dynasty - York. Richard III York's unpopularity

made , however, that hitherto warring families jointly requested to remove him from power. After the Battle of Bosworth in 1485 finally throne of England fell representative of another family-Henry Tudor dynasty.

The first half of the sixteenth century was marked by the reign of Henry VIII Tudor, who ruled between 1509-1547. Henry VIII led to the first union, which then contribute to the formation of the UK - in 1536 joined the union were England and Gaul

Tudors Dynasty

Time reign of Elizabeth I the Great, who took the throne after his father was also the heyday of Renaissance culture, literature and art, including the period of the works of William Shakespeare. The last years of the reign of Elizabeth I the Great dominated by rivalry with Spain for control of the seas, which eventually won.

After the death of Elizabeth I the Great, to the English throne joined Scottish Stewart Dynasty, starting a period of personal union of the English-Scottish. The reign of the Stewarts contributed to the outbreak of the English Revolution, which dominate the political image of the country throughout the seventeenth century. English Revolutions determined the fact that England did not become an absolute monarchy, and instead planted by a parliamentary monarchy.

The reign of the Stuarts

The two first kings of the dynasty of the Stewarts - James I and Charles I clearly sought to weaken the role of the parliament and the establishment of absolutist model of government. Also objected to the privileges which laid down a personal freedom and independence of the judiciary. Practice governing the Stewarts first led to social unrest and revolution.

History of the Kingdom of England ends with a vocation to the life of the United Kingdom which took place May 1, 1707, with the merger in a single state of the Kingdom of England (along with the incorporated Wales) and the Kingdom of Scotland, under the Act of Union, signed and ratified by the parliaments of both kingdoms, which resulted in the creation of the United Kingdom, which had a constitutional monarch and a parliament at Westminster

The United Kingdom of Great Britain

Mateusz Jedynak

The End