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A Brief History of GreAt BritAin A Brief History of GreAt BritAin WilliAm e. Burns A Brief History of Great Britain Copyright © 2010 by William E. Burns All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher. For information contact: Facts On File, Inc. An imprint of Infobase Publishing 132 West 31st Street New York NY 10001 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Burns, William E., 1959- A brief history of Great Britain / William E. Burns. p. cm. — (Brief history) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-8160-7728-1 1. Great Britain—History. 2. Ireland—History. I. Title. DA30.B88 2009 941—dc22 2009008217 Facts On File books are available at special discounts when purchased in bulk quantities for businesses, associations, institutions, or sales promotions. Please call our Special Sales Department in New York at (212) 967-8800 or (800) 322-8755. You can find Facts On File on the World Wide Web at http://www.factsonfile.com Text design by Joan M. McEvoy Composition by Hermitage Publishing Services Maps by Patricia Meschino Cover printed by Art Print, Taylor, Pa. Book printed and bound by Maple-Vail Book Manufacturing Group, York, Pa. Date printed: December, 2009 Printed in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 This book is printed on acid-free paper. Dedicated to the Frobish crew, Bill, Jerry, and Jim Contents List of Illustrations viii List of Maps ix Acknowledgments xi Introduction xiii 1 Early Settlements, Celts, and Romans (Prehistory to ca. 450 C.E.) 1 2 Anglo-Saxons, Scots, and Vikings (ca. 450–ca. 850) 26 3 Scotland, England, and Wales (ca. 850–1272) 48 4 Britain in the Late Middle Ages (1272–1529) 72 5 The Making of Protestant Britain (1529–1689) 95 6 Industry and Conquest (1689–1851) 125 7 Britain in the Age of Empire (1851–1922) 154 8 An Age of Crisis (1922–1945) 185 9 The Age of Consensus (1945–1979) 208 10 A House Divided (1979–2009) 232 Appendixes 1 Basic Facts about Great Britain 258 2 Chronology 262 3 Bibliography 271 4 Suggested Reading 274 Index 281 List of iLLustrations The ruins of Stonehenge 3 A spearhead from the Thames Valley area 5 Tintagel village in Cornwall 32 Gold coins minted by the ruler Offa 39 A ninth-century Viking ship 42 The seal of 13th-century noble Robert Fitzwalter 58 Westminster Abbey 69 A 14th-century French illustration of the Peasants’ Revolt 83 Holyrood Palace in Scotland 91 Three portraits of Queen Elizabeth 100 A contemporary Dutch cartoon of Oliver Cromwell 114 A sketch of Newton’s reflecting telescope 119 A cartoon depicting William and Mary as Protestant crusaders 122 An idealized portrait of George III 143 A cartoon featuring Napoleon and George IV 147 Cartoon depiction of the Great Reform Bill 150 The Great Exhibition opening in Hyde Park, London 152 British camp during the Crimean War 155 Double-decker buses in front of the Houses of Parliament 161 Impoverished children in Edinburgh, Scotland 170 Women working in a shell factory during World War I 179 World War I recruiting campaigns 180 Winston Churchill, 1929 186 Conservative politician F. E. Smith (Lord Birkenhead) mixing British tradition and modernity 188 Influx of people in wartime Britain 205 American military presence during World War II 206 Winston Churchill, 1949 211 Terrorist attack on the King David Hotel in Jerusalem 215 The Sex Pistols 224 Meeting of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and President Jimmy Carter 233 British author Zadie Smith 242 viii Prime Minister Tony Blair with President George W. Bush 254 The Millennium Dome 256 Britain’s past and future—Greater London Authority Building and Tower Bridge 257 List of Maps United Kingdom xv Administrative Boundaries of Great Britain xxii Tribal Groupings of Great Britain in the First Century C.E. 13 Britain in the Eighth Century 40 British Empire, 1930 156/157 ix aCKnoWLeDGMents y principal thanks for this volume go to my mentors, friends, M and colleagues in British history, including the late B. J. T. Dobbs, Ray Kelch, Margaret Jacob, Kathryn Brammall, Bruce Janacek, Art Williamson, Dane Kennedy, Jon Tetsuro Sumida, Lori Anne Ferrell, Deborah Harkness, Norma Landau, Florene Memegalos, and Lorraine Madway. My editor at Facts On File, Claudia Schaab, helped make this a better book, as did my copy editor, Elin Woodger. I also thank the Gelman Library of George Washington University, the Folger Library, the Library of Congress, and Julie Brazier. xi introDuCtion ike that of all nations, the history of Great Britain is conditioned by L its geographic setting. The plethora of geographical and political factors found in Britain can be overwhelming and reflects the ebb and flow of power over the centuries. Geography, Climate, and Natural Resources Great Britain, which includes the constituent units of England, Wales, and Scotland, is the world’s ninth-largest island. It covers about 80,823 square miles (209,331 square kilometers) and extends about 600 miles (966 kilometers) from north to south and about 300 miles (483 kilome- ters) from east to west. Britain is the largest island of the British Isles, an archipelago—that is, a group of islands. Despite Britain’s position in the northern latitudes of Europe—the same distance from the equator as the southern parts of the cold countries of Norway and Sweden—the presence of the warm waters of the Gulf Stream makes the archipelago much warmer than the cor- responding areas in North America or Scandinavia. (Some fear that global warming will alter the course of the Gulf Stream away from the British Isles; thus, paradoxically, some British worry that it will make their islands much colder.) The climate is very wet, and rainfall is pretty evenly distributed and frequent, meaning that British farmers have little need for the elaborate irrigation systems characteristic of drier climes. Britain is seismically stable, and British earthquakes are small and very rarely destructive. Britain is well endowed with minerals, particularly tin, lead, iron, and coal. The availability of iron and coal is one of the reasons why Britain was the home of the Industrial Revolution. Its North Sea coastal waters also have oil, but the supply is fast running out. No place on the island of Great Britain is farther than 70 miles (113 kilometers) from the sea, and Britain’s rivers and irregular coastline provide numerous harbors, particularly facing south and east. The British were not always great sailors, nor did they always have a strong navy, but those powerful on the seas were a constant threat. Britain’s xiii A BRIEF History OF Great Britain separation from the continent also means that most invaders of Britain were not entire peoples on the move but smaller groups of warriors. Successful invasions and conquests in British history have usually resulted in the imposition of a new ruling class rather than the intro- duction of an entirely new people. Britain is marked by pronounced regional differences. The most basic division is that between highland areas and lowland areas. The “highland zone” is defined by being over 200 meters (656 feet) above sea level. Highland zones are found in Wales, much of Scotland, north- ern England, and parts of southwestern England, although lowland pockets exist in highland territories. The British highland zone is not really mountainous, as the highest mountains reach the modest height of roughly 4000 feet (1,219 meters). There is a much higher propor- tion of highland land in Scotland than in England, and the difference between the highlands and the lowlands and their inhabitants plays a central role in Scottish history and culture. The highlands are marked by a greater emphasis on pastoralism, as they have mostly chalky soil and are too wet and cold for successful agriculture. The highlands are also much less densely populated than the lowlands, as it requires much more land to support a human being through pastoralism than through agriculture. Lowland areas are usu- ally more fertile. The most fertile lowlands are in the south and south- east of Britain, where there is rich, heavy soil more suited to agriculture. Lowlanders can engage in raising either grains or livestock, depending on circumstances. In the Middle Ages much of the lowlands was turned over to the highly profitable production of wool. Lowlanders tended to live in villages, highlanders in small hamlets or isolated farmsteads, or to be nomadic. Invasions of Britain had much less effect on the highlands than on the lowlands, which constituted the really valuable prize due to their greater agricultural productivity. Those regimes exercising power throughout Britain or the British Isles were usually based in lowland England, the only place capable of supporting them. The extension of power from the lowlands to the highlands was a difficult challenge due to the difficulty of the terrain. Mountainous Wales preserved its independence for centuries despite its poverty and its inability to unite politically. The only invaders to subdue Wales before the 13th century were the well-organized and disciplined Roman legions, and it took them years after the conquest of England. The less-organized Anglo- Saxons, Vikings, and Normans had a much harder time, and Wales was only permanently annexed to England in 1284. xiv INTRODUCTION . TS N M PIA M RA G HIGHLANDS P E N N I N E S . MIDLANDS S T M N A I R LOWLANDS B M A C xv A BRIEF History OF Great Britain The greater poverty of the highlands meant that highlanders often raided lowlanders, creating hostility between the two.