this video is brought to you by captivating history the history of England is one of invasions cultural revolution and change when the ice age ended and the sea levels rose the low-lying land of modern-day England was swamped creating an island it was first inhabited by modern humans during the Upper Paleolithic period but took its name from the angles a Germanic tribe from the Anglia Peninsula who settled there in the 5th and 6th centuries the Iron Age followed the Ice Age when hunting continued as a source of food but farming technology developed allowing the nomadic peoples
to create settlements and early farmsteads began to appear on the landscape named due to the use of bronze and copper to create tools weapons and decorative items by peoples known as the Celts the Bronze Age existed from 2,500 until circa 800 C II it was during this period that large stone meeting places or henges such as f Murray and Stonehenge were constructed eventually the Celts came to the attention of the Roman Emperor Julius Caesar who sent a military expedition to England in 55 BCE but failed to conquer it the Romans succeeded in 43 C II
when Emperor Claudius successfully led an invasion and they ruled England as a colony for the next six hundred years they brought with them elements of their own civilization they constructed roads and cities with forms baths aqueducts and theaters traders and craftsmen arrived and the Anglo Roman population grew in 120 seee Emperor Hadrian commissioned a massive wall between England and Scotland to dissuade attacks from the Picts in Scots known as Hadrian's Wall it marked the northern border of the Roman Empire as the Empire began to crumble troops were withdrawn from England to defend Rome but in
fort nce it fell to a Visigoths army and England was left to defend itself forty years later around 450 ad vordigan a local ruler invited Danish mercenaries to defend his area of England from attacks led by the Picts in Scots however the Danes turned on their host and established the first Saxon kingdom of England other mercenary groups invaded resulting in the establishment of a patchwork of rival Saxon and Engel kingdoms that were continually at war these rivalries were known as the Dark Ages a period where anglo-saxon art and literature inspired by Christianity became refined this
period was violently ended by the constant invasion of Viking armies who established settlements and took over Saxon kingdoms eventually after many battles the separate kingdoms were unified under the reign of ethel stan and a united england was created in 1066 on the death of Edward the Confessor three men vying for the English crown Harold the first the manor took the throne Harald heard Ronna King of Norway and William of Normandy this rivalry led to two invasions Harold the first defeated the Viking army at Stamford Bridge but was defeated himself at Hastings by William who unheralded
ëthe crowned himself King on Christmas Day 1066 to control the defeated Saxons William gave vast tracts of land to his own Lords and constructed a number of large stone castles to raise money he instructed that a detailed inventory be taken of all English lands an undertaking that became the Doomsday Book William was succeeded by King John who believing he was above the law forcefully took what he needed from the people however the Barons disputed his demands and in 1215 they presented the king with an ultimatum a document that became known as the Magna Carta the
year after its signing King John died and in 1216 his son the nine year old Henry inherited the crown during the next hundred years England was scourge died the plague known as the Black Death and responsible for killing one-third of the population in 1485 when Henry Tudor defeated Richard the third at the Battle of Bosworth Field the Tudor dynasty began Henry the seventh ruled wisely but after his son Arthur was killed he decreed that his younger son also called Henry should marry Arthur's Widow Catherine the wedding followed his and his son the 18 year old
Henry the eighth's subsequent coronation after 20 years of marriage and one daughter marry Henry divorced Catherine as she had not produced a son to ensure the divorce he broke with the Catholic Church and declared himself to be the head of the Church of England in 1533 he married Anne Boleyn this marriage resulted in another daughter Elizabeth three years later he had n tried for treason she was executed at the Tower of London in 1536 Henry the eighth married six times during his third marriage to Jane Seymour he father his son named Edward Jane died shortly
after his son was born in 1547 Henry himself died and Edward who was nine years old inherited the crown but when he died aged just fifteen the crown passed to his cousin Jane Grey who was forcibly deposed after just nine days by Mary Edwards elder half-sister who wanted England to revert to Catholicism she died childless in 1558 leaving Elizabeth to become Queen under Elizabeth the first the Navy established by Henry the eighth developed into England's major form of defense and became the means by which England explored colonized and traded around the globe in a prosperous
period called England's Golden Age Elizabeth never married dying she indicated she wanted James the sixth of Scotland to succeed her so in 1603 James the sixth of Scotland became James the first of England his personal debts in Catholic baptism were the sources of some dissension and gave rise to the infamous assassination attempt known as the Gunpowder Plot his successor and son Charles took to the throne in 1625 he believed God had created him King and due to that belief he did not trust the English Parliament and between 1629 and 1640 he dismissed it choosing to
rule by royal decree a situation that led to the English war Charles the first was tried and found guilty of treason on January 26th 1649 and beheaded the war ended when cromwell's parliamentarian New Model Army defeated king charles the second's royalist at the Battle of Worcester on 3rd September 1651 Charles was exiled and the monarchy was replaced with the Commonwealth of England and then the Protectorate under the personal rule of Oliver Cromwell Cromwell died in 1658 and his son Richard became Lord Protector but he lacked his father's talents in May 1659 he resigned and Parliament
arranged for Charles the second to take the throne in 1685 when the catholic james ii took the throne several english politicians objected and wrote to William of Orange a popular Protestant who had married James the second daughter he accepted the offer and landed at Brixham on November 5th 1688 and began a march on London before he arrived james ii fled to france and william was crowned on April 21st 1689 alongside his Queen Mary ii the couple ruled jointly until Mary's death in 1694 William lived on for 10 years dying in 1702 when Mary's sister and
ascended to the throne when Anne died in 1714 the Georgian period began named after the four Hanoverian George's and includes the short reign of William the fourth it is a term used to describe the social and political history architecture and fashions between 1714 and the 1830s a period of the start of the Industrial Revolution that began around 1769 lasted into the 1840s that helped to make England one of the richest countries in the world however it was also the period when England lost control of its American colonies when Queen Victoria came to the throne in
1837 aged eighteen she was the ruler of Great Britain Canada Australia India New Zealand and parts of Africa her rule heralded an unprecedented series of inventions and discoveries when she died in 1902 her reign had seen the invention of steam power industrialization and major advancements in the arts the 20th century began with the death of Victoria succeeded by her son Edward Edwardian England was a period of decadence and enjoyment however his reign only lasted nine years he died in 1910 and was succeeded by his son George v the causation of the First World War 1914
to 1918 was long and protracted as each European country found themselves dragged into the conflict after Germany declared war on Russia on the 1st of August 1914 and on France three days later on the 4th of August Britain too declared war when it ended in 1980 on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month it had been the deadliest conflict in human history as an outcome of the war some women who had worked at jobs usually filled by men were granted the vote in 1918 whilst all women gained the same voting rights
as men in 1928 post-world War One England underwent a period of unrest when different industrial workers went on strike for better working conditions and higher wages leading up to the general strike of 1926 which was followed by a financial crash known as the depression in January 1936 King George v died and was succeeded by his eldest son Edward the eighth however Edward had fallen in love with a divorced American woman while the Simpson even in the 30s a member of the royal family was not allowed to marry a divorcee in his Edward refused to break
off his relationship on December 11th 1936 he abdicated passing the crown unto his brother war broke out again in 1939 when England stood firm against the aggression of Nazi Germany it ended in 1945 and the reconstruction of London and England began in 1951 the festival of Britain was staged to celebrate national recovery the 1960s saw a huge social and sexual revolution with the invention of the pill and when groups such as the Beatles led youth culture and swinging London led the world in fashion trends it also saw great technological advances such as the moon-landing supersonic
flight the joining of the EEC and the establishment of London as a global financial center however as the 20th century came to an end England's power began to wane where its future and global position in the 21st century lies only time will tell if you want to learn more about English history then check out our book history of England a captivating guide to English history starting from antiquity through the rule of the anglo-saxons Vikings Normans and tutors to the end of World War two it's available as an e-book paperback and audio book also make sure
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