GREAT BRITAIN

THE IMPACT OF THE PAST

Mr. Kuzmich

IS Comparative Government

Great Britain – Impact of the Past

Ancient Peoples

• Celts – Britons, Cymeric, Gaels

• Romans - Britannia

• Germans – Angles, Saxons & Jutes became the English

• Danish Vikings

• Normans – last successful invasion of the British Isles by William the Conqueror.

Celts

•Pushed to the “Celtic fringe” in Scotland, Wales and Ireland.

Norman Conquest of England

• Bayeux Tapestry depicts the Battle of Hastings by William the Conqueror.

Norman Contributions

• Noble Class

• Fiefdoms – lands granted by a king to nobles in exchange for support, usually, military service.

• Administration – Domesday Book – first census

• Exchequer – treasury minister

• French language enriched the English

Feudal Lords and Nobles

Magna Carta

• 1215 at Runnymede

• Nobles forced King John to sign

• Limiting monarch’s powers and staying within the law.

Rise of Parliament

• House of Commons – lower house formed by knights and burghers

– Speaker – representative to the king

• House of Lords – upper house formed by those of noble rank and top churchmen

Henry VIII – 1491 (1509-1547)

• A true Renaissance Man

• Fluent in Latin, French and Spanish

• Accomplished musician, author and poet

• Athletic – jousting, hunting and tennis

• Devout Christian

King Henry VIII

• His older brother died in 1502.

• Became King when his father passed away.

• He married his brother’s widow, Catherine of Aragon.

The Six Wives of Henry VIII

• The fates of Henry's wives is "divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived".

• Catherine of Aragon –bore Princess Mary of England, later to be named Mary I.

Parliament’s Power Progresses

• Henry wanted a divorce

• Pope and the Vatican would not grant one

• Called Parliament to break away from the Catholic Church

• Formed the Anglican Church

• Granted a divorce in 1533

Anne Boleyn – Wife #2

• Sister of one of Henry’s mistresses

• Bore Henry another daughter, Elizabeth, the future Elizabeth I

• Executed on false charges of adultery, incest and treason along with her brother

Jane Seymour – Wife #3

• Engaged one day after Boleyn’s execution

• Bore Henry a son, Edward, the future Edward VI

• Died 12 days later after a difficult pregnancy

Anne of Cleves – Wife #4

• Henry VIII was shown this portrait and agreed to marry Anne

• When he met her, he said she looked like a “Flanders mare”

• Almost immediately divorced, but the arranger was executed

Catherine Howard – Wife #5

• Cousin of Anne Boleyn

• Almost immediately started having affairs as she was ~30 years his junior

• Executed in less than two years for adultery

Catherine Parr – The Grand Finale

• Survived Henry VIII

• Reconciled Henry and his daughters, who became successors, though still illegitimate

• Henry VIII’s regime responsible for ~72,000 executions

Henry’s Successors

• Edward VI – King of England and Ireland from age 9 to 15.

• 1st Protestant king

• Who is Queen Jane?

• Mary I, or commonly known as “Bloody Mary”

• Catholic queen for five years

Elizabeth I – 1558 -1603• Return to

Protestantism

• Supported anticlerical forces

• Secularized society

• Defeated the Spanish armada

• What was her nickname?

• No heirs! The last of the Tudors

STUART DYNASTY 1603 - 1714

• James I

• Charles I

• Commonwealth – Brief Republic

• Charles II

• James II

• Mary and William

James I 1603 - 1625

• United Scotland and England, but still separate countries

• Absolutist

• Tried to impose taxes without the consent of Parliament

• Puritans emigrated

Charles I 1625 - 1649

• Absolutist

• Took England into wars with France and Spain – so he needed money

• Civil War broke out in England 1642-1648

• Royalists vs. Parliamentarians

• Captured, tried by Parliament, and beheaded!

Commonwealth 1649-1660

• No king to rule

• England became a republic

• Oliver Cromwell – Lord Protector

–ie. military dictator

• Turbulent and unstable

Charles II 1660 - 1685

• Parliament “invited” the son of the beheaded king to return from Dutch exile.

• 1673 – Declaration of Indulgence

James II 1685 - 1688

• Brother of Charles II

• Openly Catholic

• Declaration of Indulgence

• Parliament fired the King!

– (Let him escape)

Mary and William 1688 - 1702

• Invited to be King and Queen

• 1688 - Glorious Revolution

• 1689 – Bill of Rights

– Parliament’s relationship to the Crown

– No taxes without Parliament’s consent

– Right to petition the monarch

• Parliament was now supreme

Queen Anne 1702 – 1714

• 1707 Act of Union - Scotland and England become a single state.

• 1714 – Anne dies and the Stuart Dynasty ends as there are no patrilineal descendants.

• House of Hanover Dynasty begins and remains to this day.

PRIME MINISTER

• Sir Robert Walpole 1721-1742

– Cabinet developed nearly into its present form

• William Pitt the Younger

– 1783 - 1801 and 1804 - 1806

– Restored the cabinet and prime minister so that the position was responsible to the Parliament and not the King

– Prime Minister became the focus of political power in Britain.

Democratization of Parliament

• Party Politics– Whigs – Liberal Party

– Tories – Conservative Party

• Reform Acts– 1832 – more middle class

– 1867

– 1884 – farm workers

– 1918 – Women’s suffrage

Welfare State

• Labour Party

• 1926 – General Strike

• 1945 – Labour Party won majority

– Prime Minister – Clement Attlee

– Britain becomes a modern welfare state

UNION JACK

Population Density