British and American History: S1 British and American History: S1
This site is designed primarily for teachers and learners of English at UPPA - Université de Pau et des Pays de l'Adour
Power Point presentations UK and US history: text only as web pages
Lesson 1: from the beginnings to the Plantagenets
Lesson 2: from the Plantagenets to the Peasant's Revolt
Lesson 3: from the "Wars of the Roses" to the "Glorious Revolution"
Lancaster and York
In 1399 Richard II (who had no children) was deposed and Henry IV became king. Died 1412. Henry V a soldier.
Agincourt 1415. Decisive victory against the French (English dead approx 100, French approx 7,000). Henry became heir to the French throne. But he died in 1422.
Lancaster and York
Henry VI (acceded to the throne at the age of eight months ...). Poor regents, ineffectual kingship. Lost gains in France. Henry VI suffered occasional bouts of madness ...
Challenge to the throne by Richard of York, 1455. Later known as the "war of the roses". Henry VI deposed 1461, Edward IV.
Lancaster and York
Lancastrians red rose, Yorkists white rose.
Years of battles.
1471 defeat Lancastrians (battle of Tewkesbury). Edward IV started to restore order, trade and some prosperity.
Lancaster and York
Edward IV died 1483. Edward V proclaimed king. 13 years old. Killed with his younger brother in the Tower of London, perhaps by Edward IV's brother (their uncle) Richard, Duke of Gloucester, who became king until 1485, killed in the final battle of the Wars of the Roses, the battle of Bosworth, won by Henry Tudor, another claimant to the throne.
Tudors
1485 considered end of Middle Ages.
Henry VII.
Tudors
Lords weakened by wars: many nobles had died in battle; commons infrequently summoned. King reigned with Privy Council and powerful judicial body known as the Star Chamber.
England began to look up in the world ...
Tudors
In 1497 John Cabot (Giovanni Caboto), who had received instructions from Henry VII to discover new lands to the West, sailed from Bristol and discovered Newfoundland.
Tudors
Henry's son Prince Arthur married Catherine of Aragon (1501); Henry's daughter Margaret married King James IV of Scotland (1503).
Henry died in 1509. His skilful government had amassed great wealth. He had invested heavily in shipbuilding...
Henry VIII
Prince Arthur died shortly after marriage to Catherine, aged 14. The Pope granted a dispensation to his younger brother Henry to marry her.
In 1509 on Henry VII's death his second son became Henry VIII, a young, energetic, handsome man (when he was young ...). He married Catherine soon after he became king.
Henry VIII in 1509
Henry VIII in 1520
Henry VIII
Henry had a daughter with Catherine (Mary) but their son had died in early infancy. Henry was apparently worried by a biblical quotation which seemed all too apposite:
"And if a man shall take his brother's wife, it is an unclean thing ... They shall be childless"
Henry VIII
He wanted an annulment. During this time he fell in love with Anne Boleyn. In January 1533 Henry married her, and shortly afterwards Elizabeth was born (there was however to be no living son).
The Pope had refused to grant the annulment, but Henry's Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer declared the marriage to Catherine was null and void.
Henry VIII
The Pope was angry and excommunicated Henry. Henry summoned Parliament which passed the Act of Supremacy making the King the Supreme Head of the Church of England.
Dissolution of monasteries 1536-1539.
Anne had a son in January 1536, but he was stillborn. She was beheaded on trumped-up charges of adultery in 1536.
Henry VIII
Also in 1536: Act of Union formally annexed Wales. English sole official language.
Henry VIII in 1535
Henry VIII in 1536 (painting by Hans Holbein)
Henry VIII
Henry married Jane Seymour a few days later, who gave him a son in 1537. Jane died shortly afterwards. The son Edward was not a robust child, and Henry feared he might also die (though Edward in fact later succeeded Henry VIII).
Henry was persuaded to marry Anne of Cleves, the sister of a powerful European Protestant.
Henry VIII
The marriage was arranged by the King's Chancellor of the Exchequer Thomas Cromwell. Holbein was sent to paint a picture, and produced a flattering portrait. When she arrived, Henry found her decidedly unattractive. The marriage also became politically inexpedient. Henry sought an annulment, claiming the marriage had not been consummated. Granted.
Henry VIII
The marriage cost Thomas Cromwell his life.
Henry married Catherine Howard. However Catherine was accused of adultery soon afterwards (she admitted this was true). The marriage was annulled and Catherine executed February 1542.
In 1543 Henry married Catherine Parr.
Edward VI
Henry died in 1547 and his son Edward inherited the crown. However he was only 9 and ruled with a committee of executors.
Under his reign England became a Protestant country. Destruction images and decorations; "popish" furniture in churches removed
Edward died in 1553. Attempt to place Protestant Lady Jane Grey on throne failed.
Mary Queen of Scots
Mary (Catholic) became Queen. Burning of Protestants ... Lady Jane Grey executed.
Mary married Philip I of Spain, but they had no children. Mary died in 1558.
Her half-sister Elizabeth, who had been brought up as a Protestant, became Queen, and she lived until 1603.
Elizabeth I
Elizabeth wanted to calm the troubled waters of religious controversy, though maintaining control.
Foreign policy was affected by religion: England's two more powerful rivals France and Spain were both Catholic. She refused marriage to suitors from either country. She also had to face plots to install Mary Queen of Scots (Catholic Queen of Scotland).
Elizabeth I
England's relations with Spain under Elizabeth became tense. She encouraged privateers in the Caribbean (Hawkins, Drake, Frobisher), attacking Spanish galleons from about 1570 onwards. Elizabeth gave aid to Dutch resisting Spanish rule. Drake attacked Spanish ships off Cadiz. Spanish decided to attack England. Invincible Armada 1588.
Elizabeth I
Drake and his game of bowls at Plymouth Hoe... According to the legend, Drake was playing bowls when he was given news of the impending arrival of the Spanish armada. Drake said there was plenty of time to finish the game and then beat the Spanish ... so carried on playing.
Elizabeth I - "Armada" portrait
Elizabeth I - "Armada" portrait - detail
Elizabeth I - "Armada" portrait - detail
Elizabeth I - "Armada" portrait - detail. Francis Drake had become the first Englidshman to sail round the world
Elizabethan era
Sir Walter Raleigh (potatoes and tobacco ...).
Colonies in North America. Virginia (in honour of the virgin Queen).
Elizabeth I
In 1600 Queen Elizabeth granted a charter to the East India Company. Competition with the Dutch.
Wars in Ireland to subdue the population. Settlement, especially in Ulster.
Elizabeth I
Mary Queen of Scots was imprisoned in England for many years, until she was finally executed in 1587.
Elizabethan era
Parliament obtained rights (right to speak freely etc); gentry and merchants were becoming more powerful and more wealthy.
Elizabethan era
Elizabeth's long reign was marked by intellectual and artistic achievements. Francis Bacon (1561-1626) (philosophy), Shakespeare (1554-1616), Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593) (Doctor Faustus, Tamburlaine, ...), Ben Jonson (1572-1637) (Volpone, The Alchemist).
Poor Law 1601. Parish responsible for destitute.
Elizabethan playwrights and poets
James VI/I
James I and the Stuarts
James I believed deeply in the divine right of kings: kings were appointed and anointed by God. Parliament was unimpressed.
James spent most of his reign arguing with Parliament over money.
(1620 Mayflower Pilgrim fathers)
1625 King Charles I. Growing tension between King and Parliament.
Charles I
Charles I
Charles summoned Parliament to raise money several times: tension as Parliament sought to limit the funds it would vote and to impose conditions which made the King depend more on Parliament. Ruled without Parliament for long periods.
Appointed "High Church" Archbishop of Canterbury: reinstated ceremony etc. Scots in particular resisted.
Charles I
Charles sent army in 1638, but decided not to engage the Scottish forces and agreed to pay the Scots for the expenses they had incurred.
This strained relations with Parliament. He agreed to summon Parliament regularly (at least once every three years).
In Ireland rebellion 1641. Charles wanted to raise army; Parliament feared this would be used against them.
Charles I - Oliver Cromwell
1642 crisis: Civil War. Bitter war between Royalists and Parliamentarians (Cavaliers and Roundheads). Parliamentary general Oliver Cromwell.
Battle of Naseby 1645 King defeated and captured.
1649 Charles beheaded.
Oliver Cromwell "Lord Protector". Commonwealth.
Oliver Cromwell: "warts and all"
Oliver Cromwell
Cromwell severely repressed Irish rebellion.
"Levellers" in England rebelled against authoritarian government. Defeated.
Killjoy government. Oliver Cromwell died 1658. His son Richard not up to the task ...
1660 Charles II recalled. Restoration.
Charles II also believed in divine right of kings and admired Louis XIV.
Charles II
Charles a little more flexible ...
Emergence "Whigs" (pro-Parliamentary) and "Tories" (pro-Royalist)
1665-6 Great Plague, 1666 Great Fire of London.
James II King on Charles' death in 1685. James II favourable to Catholicism but as he was old and had no son Parliament thought it could wait ...
Charles II
But he had a son in June 1688.
Parliament invited Mary, James' daughter, to reign with William of Orange in 1688. James II ran away. 1688, "Glorious Revolution". Parliament asserted real power in the state. Parliamentary democracy.
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