So, from 1603 the Kingdoms of England and Wales, Scotland and Ireland all had the same monarch – James Stuart. Scotland retained its separate sovereignty. I must confess to not having much affection for the Stuart monarchs – they seem…
Dawn of Empire
Elizabethan England has a very different atmosphere to any previous period in Britsh history. Elizabeth I succeeded to the throne of England on the death of her elder Catholic half-sister ‘Bloody’ Mary in 1558. She was twenty-five. Her 45 year…
Losing our religion – how Henry VIII changed the world and his wife
No challenge blighted Henry VIII’s accession to the throne. England was at peace and it seemed a golden age. In contrast to the ailing, bloated, tyrant he was to become, the youthful king is often portrayed as a true renaissance…
The victor of Bosworth
Not everybody agreed in 1485 that the new Tudor King, Henry VII, had the best claim to the throne of England. It has actually been described as ‘flimsy’. He was the son of a formidable mother, Margaret Beaufort, and Edmund…
A violent royal soap opera
English history in the second half of the 15th century is scarred by civil war – the Wars of the Roses – a label which became popular in Victorian times based on the red and white roses of the rival…
When death walked the land
The Black Death or Great Pestilence swept through Europe between around 1346–1353, where it eventually killed between 30-60% of the population – an estimated 25 million people. Some sources calculate twice that. The disease originated ‘somewhere in the east’ and…
Why France isn’t part of Britain
You may have noticed that France isn’t part of Britain. But at one time the Kings of England ruled chunks of what is now France. It all began when Duke William of Normandy became King William I of England in…
Whatever happened to Wales?
Wales, like Scotland, was not a unified political entity in the early Middle Ages. It consisted of a number of kingdoms, the largest of which were Gwynedd in the north west, Deheubarth in the south west and Powys in between…
How Scotland was born
We hear a lot about Scottish independence today. There had been a Kingdom of the Scots since Kenneth MacAlpin (Cionnaith mac Ailpin) in the 9th century. But Scotland in the 12th century did not exist as we would know it…
Brits invent parliamentary democracy
The whole world knows that the ancient Greeks invented democracy (demos – ‘the people’ kratia – ‘power’). But we Brits like to imagine it was us – Westminster is “the mother of parliaments”, and all that. In fact, Iceland’s Althing…
How the Normans shaped world history
If anyone living in Britain hasn’t heard of the Battle of Hastings, they should be ashamed of themselves. Britain changed forever on 14th October 1066. But, in fact, the defeat of the English (Saxons) under King Harold, by the bastard…