Old Stone Age or Palaeolithic - over 1,000,000 years ago 

Middle Stone Age or Mesolithic - about 11,000 years ago 

New Stone Age or Neolithic - about 6000 - 4500 years ago 

 

The Stone Age covered a vast period of time and saw the extinction of earlier species of humans and the emergence of our own species. There were repeated ice ages.

 

About 2 million years ago

Our human ancestors evolved in Africa. Fossil evidence of the earliest modern humans (Homo sapiens) dates from about 300,000 years ago. From about 80,000 years ago modern humans gradually spread across the world.

 

About 1,000,000 years ago - The Old Stone Age or the Palaeolithic

Early humans such as Homo neanderthalensis (Neanderthals) and Homo heidelbergensis arrived in Britain, travelling the country hunting wild animals and gathering plants to eat.

There were periods of severe cold, ice ages when much of Britain was covered with a thick layer of ice and nothing could live here. But there were also warmer periods between the ice ages.

44,000 years ago

Our own ancestors, Homo sapiens reached Britain. They were hunter-gatherers who made stone tools. Sea levels were lower and Britain was connected to the rest of Europe by a land bridge across the North Sea and English Channel.

26,000 years ago

The last ice age was at its peak. Huge thick sheets of ice miles thick covered Britain north of Nottingham. Britain was cold and bleak and uninhabitable.

 

About 11,000 years ago - The Middle Stone Age or the Mesolithic

Temperatures rose, the ice began to melt and the Ice Age came to an end. Bands of hunters using stone tools, spears and bows and arrows came back to Britain following the herds of mammoth, aurochs, reindeer and horses on the grasslands and hunting deer, wild cattle and pigs in the vast forests. 

 

6000 - 4500 years ago - The New Stone Age or the Neolithic

 

After a million years, a revolution - farming! People began to settle in villages to farm the land and keep animals. Forest trees were cleared so that cereals such as wheat and barley could be grown. Herds of cattle and pigs were kept and later sheep and goats. Stone tools from this period have been found in fields around Langar.

 

START: 2500 BC is the approximate date when the first bronze tools were made in Britain.

END: From 800 BC tools were increasingly made of iron not bronze.

 

People who knew how to melt copper and tin to make bronze came to Britain from France, Spain and Germany. Bronze did not replace stone. Although it is light and easily worked, bronze is easily blunted and may not have been used so much for tools as for woodworking and carpentry and for ornaments and jewellery. Stone is heavy and better for working with timber. Great skill is needed to make the best flint arrowheads and axes and this skill was not lost.

 

Nobody knows how many newcomers there were compared with the native Stone Age population, nor whether the one group conquered or replaced the other, or whether they intermarried or whether it was the technology that spread from one group to the other. No bronze tools have been found in our area and no pottery. However, Bronze Age flint tools have been discovered near Langar.

 

By the end of the Bronze Age probably half of England's wildwood had been felled, although not in heavily forested area such as Sherwood where forest remained into the Middle Ages. There are also patches of lighter land where tree cover was not so dense and arable farming could take place. Livestock was kept near rivers and forest areas.

 

Go back to the Bronze Age.

  

800 BC - 43 AD

 

START: 800 BC is the rough date when iron was first used for making tools in Britain.

END: 43 AD is the date of the Roman invasion of Britain.

Note: People in Iron Age Britain are usually called Ancient Britons or Celts.

 

For 500 years until Roman times, tribes came to Britain from mainland Europe. Their blacksmiths had learned to use charcoal to make fire hot enough to smelt iron, a metal much tougher than bronze. Iron axes, iron sickles, iron-tipped ploughs made farming easier. And an iron sword is far harder than a bronze weapon.

 

It was these people who gave this island the name, Britain. They had called earlier people, 'the painted people', in Celtic 'Pretanni', the word later deriving as 'Britons.' But it was the Celtic-speaking people who were themselves later referred to as Britons by the Romans.

 

Some historical information exists about the Iron Age. The Romans described the Ancient Britons as organised in tribes, mutually hostile and based on local centres of power. These local centres were often hillforts which could house up to 1000 inhabitants and which were surrounded by farms and farmland. They would have been the power base of a local chieftain. While hillforts are common in the south of England, there is evidence of only a handful in Nottinghamshire. 

 

Most people farmed in the countryside, living in tiny villages and farmsteads. Their wooden-framed buildings were generally built round with a central post and thatched roof almost to the ground; some houses and villages were enclosed by hedges or moats. There is evidence of a riverside Iron Age village near Clifton. Sherds of Iron Age pottery have been found and evidence of farms has been found in our area. 

 

Iron Age people lived in tribal areas. The people of each area spoke the same language or dialect, followed the same customs and obeyed the same laws. Langar and Barnstone lay within the tribal area of the Corieltauvi with its capital at Leicester. By the time of the Roman conquest the population of Britain was about half a million people. (The population now is nearly 70,000,000.)

 

Click here for the Iron Age.

 

START: 43 AD was the year Emperor Claudius made Britain part of the Roman Empire.

END: 410 AD was the year the Roman army left Britain.

 

From the founding of Rome in the 8th century BC, Roman power grew steadily until by the 1st century AD the Roman Empire included most of Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. Most of Britain was part of the Empire after 43 AD until the army left to defend Rome in 410 AD.

 

Julius Caesar had come to Britain in 55 and again in 54 BC, but not until 43 AD did Emperor Claudius return to make Britain part of the Roman Empire. Britain then remained Roman for almost 400 years. Roman military roads passed through our area and a fort was built at Margidunum on the Fosse Way near Bingham to support the Roman conquest of northern England. It is likely that local Ancient Britons offered little resistance to the invasion.

 

History is defined as information about the past that has been written down; British history as such, therefore, begins with the Romans. Julius Caesar wrote about his British adventures and Tacitus wrote about his father-in-law Agricola, a Roman governor of Britain. However, there is little documentary evidence of the Midlands. What we know of 400 years of Roman occupation here is limited to archaeological finds: roads, coins, jewellery, gravestones, statues; the ruins of baths, villas and forts.

 

The Romans' great strengths were organisational and military. They brought city life, roads, permanent military garrisons, centralised government, taxation, their language, Latin, and later, Christianity to the lands they conquered. They brought central government, coinage, towns, baths, circuses, gladiators, taxes, roads and country villas. Many Britons became Romanised and urbanised: they wore togas, learnt Latin, built town houses and villas. For others, particularly small rural farmers, the pattern of life did not change much, apart from the obligation to pay taxes to their Roman rulers.

 

The Roman influence would have been everywhere. People had to pay taxes to the Roman administration, farmers supplied the Roman army with food and other goods, rich local people lived in Roman style and built villas.  There is archaeological evidence of Roman-period villas near Langar and Barnstone.

 

During the 3rd and 4th centuries AD the province of Britannia was under threat of invasion by Hibernians (Irish), Caledonians and Picts (Scots), and pirates and raiders from northern Europe (Angles and Saxons.) The Romans built a series of forts around the south and east coasts of Britannia which kept the attackers from across the North Sea at bay for a while. Attacks on the whole Roman Empire increased, until finally in 410 AD the Roman army was withdrawn from Britannia and the Britons were left to defend themselves.

 

Although the army was recalled in 410 AD, not all the Romans left. Examples of those who stayed were retired legionaries and government employees who had settled in Britain, had married local women, or had nothing to go back to in their countries of origin.

 

Did the Romans come to Langar & Barnstone? 

 

410 - 1066

 

START: 410 AD was the year the Roman army left Britain and the Dark Ages began.

End: Historians do not agree when the Dark Ages came to an end. 1066 is when William of Normandy invaded England to become King William the Conqueror. In 1086 the Domesday Book was compiled giving the first written evidence of most villages in England.

 

The period from the end of the Roman Empire to the Norman Invasion is often called the Early Middle Ages. Tribes of people moved west from central Asia people (such as the Huns and Goths) probably because of climate change with diminishing water supply and encroaching desert. Migration from the east led eventually to the fall of the Roman Empire - these population movements included the Anglo-Saxons. 

 

410 AD is the traditional date marking the end of Roman Britain. In that year that Emperor Honorius is thought to have answered the British request for help against invaders by telling the Britons that they must defend themselves. In the same year Rome fell to Alaric the Visigoth. There is almost no written evidence for what happened after that and so little archaeological evidence that the period which saw the end of Romano-Celtic Britain and the arrival of the Anglo-Saxons is usually called the Dark Ages.

 

It is thought that Romano-Celtic leaders took charge of the Roman regions. These were based on the original Celtic tribal areas; the Corieltauvi tribe of the East Midlands had their capital at Leicester. With the collapse of Roman economic and administrative systems, town life declined rapidly and power focussed once more on hillforts and large agricultural estates. 

 

The Dark Ages are here.

 

START: In 410 AD the Roman army left Britain and Anglo-Saxon raiders began their attacks.

END: In 1066 Duke William of Normandy invaded and conquered Anglo-Saxon England.

 

After the Roman army left in 410 AD invaders and later settlers came across the North Sea from the Netherlands, Germany and Denmark. There were various tribes, Angles, Saxons, Jutes and others who spoke similar languages. They are known as the the Anglo-Saxons.

 

Little is known about the Anglo-Saxon invasion; whether the area was taken over by large numbers of new settlers or whether new lords simply took over existing patterns of social organisation is not known. The East Midlands was populated mostly by Angles coming from the east (The Saxons were mainly in the south.) Very little archaeological evidence survives; placename evidence, however, is plentiful. People generally lived not in villages but in scattered farmsteads. 

 

After the departure of the last two legions of the Roman army in 410 AD, Britain was attacked by tribes initially looting and pillaging, but later intending to settle. Under the Roman Empire in the 3rd century Saxon mercenaries had been paid to settle in Britain to defend the east coast against the Picts and Scots. The traditional story tells of the British king, Vortigern who in 449 AD asked Hengest and Horsa, two Saxon brothers to come from Germany to help defend Britain. This they did, but they also brought with them their relations and friends. When Vortigern did not pay them, they took revenge and took land in lieu of payment.

 

The earliest Anglo-Saxon kingdoms had been established in the south-east of England by 450 AD. In most of England the Celtic/ Ancient British language and culture was replaced by that of the Anglo-Saxons. Anglian people settled the East and West Midlands from the east following the valley of the River Trent.

 

The kingdom of Mercia was founded by Anglians in 585 and by the 7th century stretched across the East Midlands south of the River Humber and west of the River Trent to the West Midlands with its capital at Tamworth. By the 8th century King Offa ruled all of England south of the Humber between Wales and East Anglia. His coins proclaimed him Rex Anglorum, Latin for 'King of the English'. In 873 Mercia fell to the Vikings.

 

By the time of the Norman Conquest of 1066 there were many farms and tiny villages scattered around the fertile land of the Vale of Belvoir. As the population grew during the 10th and 11th centuries new settlements were founded as offshoots of the original villages. Sherds of Anglo-Saxon pottery have been found at Langar and Barnstone whose very names are Anglo-Saxon. 

 

Find out more about the Anglo-Saxons.

 

 793 - 954

 

START: 793 AD is the date of the first Viking raid on Britain.

END: In 954 AD the death of Eric Bloodaxe, King of Northumbria ended the Viking Age.

Note: I use the word 'Vikings' throughout, though these people from the Scandinavian countries of Denmark, Norway and Sweden are often called Northmen or Danes.

 

From the second half of the 9th century, people from Scandinavia started invading Europe, the Swedes invading Eastern Europe and Russia, Norwegians raiding Scotland and Ireland, Iceland, Greenland and North America, while Danes ravaged Western Europe including England and as far as North Africa.

 

The Vikings are well-known for their raids on Anglo-Saxon villages, churches and monasteries on the coasts of the British Isles, which continued for some 50 years all round the country. In 865, instead of raiding, a Viking army of thousands came with the intention of conquering Anglo-Saxon England.

 

The Viking army landed in East Anglia and were bribed with gold, silver and horses to go away. The Vikings then headed for the Northumbrian capital of York, which they burned and took control of the surrounding area.  In 868 the Vikings came to Mercia and spent the winter in Nottingham. 

 

Ethelred, King of Wessex and his brother Alfred (later the Great) took an army to Nottingham, but the Vikings, protected by the defences of Nottingham, refused to give battle, and a sort-of-peace was established. 

 

In 878 King Alfred the Great of Wessex (in the south of England) defeated the Vikings in battle in Wiltshire and an agreement was made which led to 50 years of peace. In 954 AD the death of Eric Bloodaxe, King of Northumbria marked the end of the Viking Age. 

 

No archaeological evidence has been found in our area of the Vikings. However, they left their mark in the placenames around here - Granby, Harby, Tithby.

 

Learn about the Vikings.

 

START: In 1066 William of Normandy invaded England and defeated the Anglo-Saxons.

END: In 1154 the Norman period ended in civil war with Matilda and Stephen, two grandchildren of William I fighting for the crown.

 

The story of the Normans starts with the Vikings. As well as invading England, they also settled in Normandy in France. They adopted the French language and developed the French feudal system as their own. 

 

The Norman Conquest 1066

The Duke of Normandy in 1066 was William whose great-great-great-great-grandfather  was a Viking invader. In 1066 William  invaded England with 12,000 soldiers. The Anglo-Saxon King Harold was killed at the battle of Hastings and William the Conqueror become King William I of England. 

 

William I gave the lands of the Anglo-Saxon lords to his own followers. In 1086 he ordered a survey of the whole country known as the Domesday Book. Many of the country's castles were built during William's reign. 

 

William's son, William II (William Rufus) was killed while hunting - he may have been murdered, so that William's second son, Henry, could become king. After Henry I, died, his daughter Matilda and her cousin Stephen fought a civil war for the throne - a period called The Anarchy. Although Stephen won, Matilda's son succeeded him as Henry II.

 

The Norman rulers had kept their lands in France and extended them to most of Western France. The control of these lands was the cause of many wars in the Middle Ages.

 

Norman-French was the official language of England until 1362; English remained the language of the descendants of the Anglo-Saxons, largely the lower classes; Latin was the language of the Church. The fusion of English (and Norse) with French and Latin slowly evolved into modern English.

 

Go to The Normans.

  

START: In 1154 Henry II became king ending the civil war at the end of the Norman period

END: The Middle Ages ended with the death in battle of Richard III in 1485.

Note: The Middle Ages was given its name by historians of the 17th century who saw it as an uncivilised period between the Roman Empire and their own time.

 

12th & 13th centuries

The struggle of Henry II's two sons features in the legend of Robin Hood. Richard I, the Lionheart was hardly ever in England - either he was defending his French lands or on Crusade in the Holy Land trying to get back the Christian holy places from the Muslims. He spent only ten months of his ten-year reign in England. His brother, Bad King John succeeded him. He too was fought expensive wars in France and taxed the people and the barons to pay for them. 

 

The First Barons' War and Magna Carta 1215 - The barons (lords) rebelled and forced John to sign the Magna Carta (Great Charter) in which the king agreed to observe common laws and tradition, for the first time putting the king within the law. It was the beginning of democracy. John repudiated the Charter as soon as he was out of the barons' control and went round England punishing and fining the barons for their rebellion. In December 1215 he stayed at Langar Hall before attacking Belvoir Castle.

 

The Second Barons' War - Henry II and Edward I also spent most of their reigns fighting wars, including against their own barons (the Second Barons' War). The barons were led by Simon de Montfort who set up the first English Parliament (early democracy). Edward went on the 9th Crusade to the Holy Land, annexed Wales and fought the Scots. Sir Robert de Tibetot, lord of Langar, supported the king against the barons and went with him on Crusade.

 

14th & 15th centuries

The Hundred Years' War 

Edward III reigned for 50 years. His reign was marked by the beginning of the Hundred Years' War (1337-1416) in Europe and by epidemics of bubonic plague, the Black Death, which killed a third of England in 1348-1349 (and also Europe's) population. Henry V famously defeated the French at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415 - Sir Richard Scrope of Langar Hall was there. 

 

The Wars of the Roses - In 1455 the Wars of the Roses broke out; it was a civil war fought between opposing factions, the House of Lancaster (the Red Rose, supporters of Henry VI) and the House of York (the White Rose, supporters of Edward IV). Sir John Scrope fought on the side of the Yorkists. 

 

Edward IV's son, Edward V, reigned for only one year before being locked up in the Tower of London by his wicked uncle, Richard III. In 1485 the Lancastrian Henry Tudor, half-brother of Henry VI, defeated Richard at the Battle of Bosworth and became Henry VII.

 

So what about Langar in The Middle Ages?

 

START: In 1485 Henry Tudor defeated King Richard III in battle to become King Henry VII.

END: In 1603 Queen Elizabeth died, the last of the Tudor family to rule England.

 

After the chaos and unrest of the Wars of the Roses, Henry VII brought strong government and managed his money carefully. 

 

Henry VIII is remembered as one of the most powerful English kings. He proclaimed himself King of Wales and then King of Ireland. He was the last English king to claim the title of King of France, as he lost his last possession there, the port of Calais.

 

Following his divorce with his first wife, Catherine of Aragon and his excommunication by the Pope, Henry proclaimed himself head of the Church of England in 1534. then he shut down all the monasteries in the country and took their money and land for himself. 

  

During a short reign Edward VI dramatically changed the English church, smashing statues and stained glass and whitewashing wall paintings. Services were held in English. But his sister, Queen Mary was a staunch Roman  Catholic and restored Catholicism to England, executing over 300 religious dissenters in her 5-year reign earning her the nickname, Bloody Mary. 

 

Queen Elizabeth I, Good Queen Bess reigned over a golden age of England. Sailors such as Francis Drake and Walter Raleigh brought back treasures stolen from the Spanish and claimed new lands across the world for England. It was an Age of Enlightenment and high art with playwrights such as Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare. 

  

When Elizabeth died in 1603 with no children to succeed her, James VI of Scotland became King James I of England.

 

Go to the time of the Tudors.

 

1603 - 1714 - largely the 1600s (17th century)

 

James I was a Protestant who wanted to improve relations with Roman Catholics. However, two years after becoming king, a group of Roman Catholic extremists led by Guy Fawkes tried to blow up Parliament when the king would be there with all the Protestant lords. The Gunpowder plotters were caught and hanged.

 

James' son, Charles I believed he was appointed by God as king and could do whatever he wanted; he was an absolute ruler of divine right. Despite being a Protestant, he was married to a French Roman Catholic which made the Protestant lords uneasy. He had no regard for Parliament believing he should rule without it. Things came to a head and resulted in the English Civil War (1642-1651) with the country torn between Royalist and Parliamentarian supporters.

 

The English Civil War

The English Civil War (1642 - 1651) was a series of battles fought between the Royalists (Cavaliers) and the Parliamentarians (Roundheads). The Royalists controlled the north of England, while the Parliamentarians controlled London and the south. John Janes Sandford le Scrope was a royalist supporter and lost his lands at Langar to Parliament.

 

The Civil War led to the trial and execution of Charles I, the exile of his son, Charles II, and replacement of English monarchy with the Commonwealth of England (1649–1653), and then with a Protectorate (1653–1659) under Oliver Cromwell's personal rule. In England an estimated 190,000 people died from fighting, and diseases caused by the fighting. After Oliver Cromwell's death in 1658), his son Richard ;ruled so badly that Parliament restored the monarchy in 1660, calling back Charles I's exiled son, Charles II (1630-1685).

 

The Restoration

Charles II, the 'Merry Monarch' was better at handling Parliament than his father. The Great Plague of 1665 happened during Charles II's reign. Some 750,000 people died in England. Charles was a patron of the arts and sciences. He helped found the Royal Society (The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge), the first such in the world, and he sponsored architect Sir Christopher Wren, who rebuilt the much of London after the Great Fire in 1666.

Charles had no legitimate children and when he died in 1685, the throne passed to his Roman Catholic and unpopular brother James II.

 

The Glorious Revolution - William & Mary

As a result of James II's religious inclinations and despotism, he was quickly removal from power by Parliament in the Glorious Revolution of 1688. His Protestant daughter Mary, married to his Protestant nephew, William of Orange of the Netherlands were invited to invade. They defeated James' troops and deposed James II with little bloodshed. Scrope Howe of Langar Hall was a supporter of William of Orange.

 

James II was allowed to escape to France, where he remained the rest of his life under the protection of Louis XIV. His son (the Old Pretender) and grandson (the Young Pretender, Bonnie Prince Charlie) later attempted to come back to the throne, but without success.

 

Parliament passed a law that all monarchs must be Protestant. After Mary's death in 1694, then William's in 1702, James's second daughter, Anne, ascended the throne. In 1707, the Act of Union joined the Scottish and the English Parliaments creating the Kingdom of Great Britain. Anne died with no surviving children in 1714, and a distant German cousin, George of Hanover, was called to rule the United Kingdom.

 

Click here for the Stuarts.

 

When George I (1660-1727) arrived in England from Germany, he could speak no English. The story goes that he was arrested strolling around the palace gardens when questioned by staff who did not know who he was.

  

Because he could not communicate well with his government, King George appointed a Prime Minister, Robert Walpole (1676-1745) to deal with his affairs in Parliament. This marked a turning point in British politics, as future monarchs let Prime Ministers increasingly run the government.

  

George II (1683-1760) was also born in Germany. He was a strong ruler and the last British monarch to personally lead his troops into battle against the French in 1743. The German composer Handel was to composed George's coronation anthem, 'Zadok the Priest', which has been sung at every coronation since.

 

The British Empire expanded considerably during his reign and the song "God Save the King" dates from this time. Other notable changes include the replacement of the old Julian Calendar by the Gregorian Calendar in 1752 and the New Year was officially moved from 25 March to 1 January.

  

George III - the American, French, Agricultural & Industrial Revolutions

The first of the Georges to be born in England speaking English as his mother tongue, George III (1738-1820) had one of the most interesting reigns in British history. He came to the throne during the Seven Years' War (1756-1763) with Britain opposing almost all the European countries, but mainly the British against French, It ended in victory for the United Kingdom, which acquired New France (Quebec), Florida, and most of French India in the process.

  

However, the American War of Independence (1776-1782) started after the British government imposed a series of taxes on the 13 American colonies. Lord Howe of Langar Hall and his two brothers were all involved in the war. The colonies were granted independence in 1782 and formed the United States of America. seven years later, the French Revolution broke out, and Louis XVI was guillotined. There were worries that the same might happen in this country.

George III suffered from a disease that affected his mental health; by 1811 he was unable to carry out his duties as king and the country was ruled by his son, also called George.

In 1800, the Act of Union merged the Kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland and the present Union Flag (Union Jack) was created..

 

During that time, Britain faced the ambitions of Napoleon to conquer the whole of Europe. Admiral Nelson's naval victory at Trafalgar in 1805, and Wellington's victory at Waterloo in 1815 saved the UK. By the end of the 18th century the British Empire was spreading on all five continents, from Canada and the Caribbean to Australia and New Zealand, via Africa, India and South-East Asia.

  

During George's reign the Agricultural Revolution improved production of food from animals and crops and the population began to rise. The Industrial Revolution, with James Watt's famous steam engine and the mechanisation of the manufacturing industry transformed the face of England. Great industrial cities such as Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds and Sheffield emerged as new economic centres, their population booming. During the Industrial Revolution Nottingham's prosperity was founded on the textile industry; Nottingham was an important centre of lace manufacture. However, the city had the worst slums in the country.

  

The Regency 

During George III's insanity (1811-1820), his son was appointed as Regent, becoming King George IV in 1820 on his father's death. he was known for his extravagant spending. He spent more time in his magnificent Oriental-style palace in Brighton than worrying about affairs of state in London, leaving the power to the Prime Minister, Lord Liverpool (1770-1828), during most of his reign. 

  

The King was opposed to the Catholic Emancipation, ie reducing restrictions on the political rights of Roman Catholics. The Duke of Wellington, however, passed the Catholic Relief Act in 1829 during his term as Prime Minister. 

  

George IV died in 1830, and was replaced by his brother, William IV (1765-1837). In 1831 Earl Grey became Prime Minister and passed the Great Reform Act of 1832 which reformed the electoral system allowing many more men to vote.

  

This was a time of great art with painters such as Constable, Turner, Stubbs and Gainsborough, poets like Byron, Shelley, Keats and novelist Jane Austen. Technology: the world's first steam train was launched on the Stockton & Darlington railway in 1825.

 

Find out about the Georgians.

 

 

In 1837 William IV died and the throne passed to his 18-year old niece Victoria (1819-1901). Victoria was unmarried and inexperienced in politics, and relied on her Prime Minister, Lord Melbourne. She married her fist cousin, Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha of Germany. Prince Albert was a patron of the arts and sciences and organised the Great Exhibition (the first World Fair) in 1851 and used the profits to found the Victoria & Albert Museum in London.

 

Britain asserted its power everywhere in the world. This resulted in numerous wars: for example, the Opium Wars (1839-42 & 1856-60) in China, the Boer Wars (1880-81 & 1899-1902) with  Dutch-speaking settlers in South Africa, the Crimean War (1854-56) on the side of the Ottoman Empire (Turkey) against Russia. 

  

In 1861, Albert died prematurely at the age of 42. Victoria was devastated and retired in a semi-permanent state of mourning. The latter years of her reign were dominated by two influential Prime Ministers, Benjamin Disraeli and his rival William Gladstone. Disraeli was the favourite of the Queen and he crowned her 'Empress of India' in 1876. Gladstone was a Liberal and often at odds with Victoria and Disraeli, but the strong support he enjoyed from within his party kept him in power for a total of 14 years between 1868 and 1894. He legalised trade unions, advocated universal education and universal suffrage (the right to vote) at least for men.

  

Queen Victoria had the longest reign of any British monarch (64 years) except for our present Queen Elizabeth II. Britain was the most advanced and richest in the world and the British Empire covered 40% of the globe with a quarter of the world's population.

 

Victoria's numerous children married into all the royal families of Europe, which gained her the nickname, 'the Grandmother of Europe'. Her son, King Edward VII (1841-1910) was the uncle of German Emperor Kaiser Wilhelm II, Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, King Alphonso XIII of Spain, and Carl Eduard, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, while George I of the Hellenes and King Frederick VIII of Denmark were his brothers-in-law; and King Albert I of Belgium, Manuel II of Portugal, King Ferdinand of Bulgaria, Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands, and Prince Ernst August, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, were his cousins.

 

The rise of industrial cities and the move of the population away from the countryside was a major feature of the period. unsafe factory conditions and slum dwellings made life misery for many. Nottingham had some of the worst living conditions in the country. Gradual improvements were put in place towards the end of the century in the form if sewage, lighting, paving of roads, medical care and housing. Mechanisation continued apace with the steam engine powering factories, farm machinery and railway locomotives. Much of the coal used to heat the water to produce the steam came from the Nottinghamshire coalfield north-west of our area. 

 

Go to the Victorians.

 

1900 - 1999

  

The First World War

Alliances between related monarchs escalated in the Great War 1914-1918 when Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria was assassinated in Sarajevo, and Austria declared war on Serbia, which in turn was allied to France, Russia and the UK. The First World War left over 9 million dead (including nearly one million Britons) throughout Europe, and financially ruined most of the countries involved. The monarchies in Germany, Austria, Russia and the Ottoman Empire all fell, and the map of central and eastern Europe was redrawn.

 

The consequences in Britain were disillusionment with the government and monarchy, and the creation of the Labour Party. The General Strike of 1926 and the worsening economy led to radical political changes, and women were granted the same universal suffrage as men (from age 21 instead of previously 30) in 1928.

 

In 1936, Edward VIII (1894-1972) succeeded to his father George V, but abdicated the same year to marry Wallis Simpson, a twice divorced American woman. His brother then unexpectedly became George VI (1895-1952) after the scandal.

 

The Second World War 

Nazi Germany became more menacing as Hitler grew more powerful and aggressive. Finally Britain and France were forced to declare war on Germany after the invasion of Poland in September 1939, and so started the Second World War. The charismatic Winston Churchill (1874-1965) became the war-time Prime Minister in 1940 and his speeches encouraged the British to fight off the attempted German invasion. In one of his most patriotic speeches before the Battle of Britain (1940), Churchill address the British people with "We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender." And indeed, Britain did not surrender.

 

Postwar

In 1945, the UK was bankrupt and its industry almost destroyed by the Blitz. The British Empire was dismantled little by little, first granting the independence to India and Pakistan in 1947, then to the other Asian, African and Caribbean colonies in the 1950s and 60s (in the 70s and 80s for the smaller islands of the eastern Caribbean).

 

Most of these ex-colonies formed the British Commonwealth, now known as the Commonwealth of Nations. 53 states are members of the Commonwealth, accounting for 1.8 billion people (about 30% of the global population) and about 25% of the world's land area.

 

In 1952, Elizabeth II (b. 1926) ascended the throne at the age of 26. 

 

The 1970s brought the oil crisis and the collapse of the British industry. Conservative PM Margaret Thatcher (b. 1925) was elected in 1979 and stayed until 1990. She privatised the railways and shut down inefficient factories, but also increased the gap between the rich and the poor. Her methods were so harsh that she was nicknamed the 'Iron Lady'.

 

Nowadays, the English economy relies heavily on services. The main industries are travel (discount airlines and travel agencies), education (universities and textbooks, language schools for learners of English), music (EMI, HMV, Virgin), prestige cars (Rolls Royce, Bentley, Jaguar, Lotus, Aston Martin), fashion (Burberry, Dunhill, Paul Smith, Vivienne Westwood, French Connection), and food (tea, biscuits, chocolates and jam or companies like Unilever and Cadbury-Schweppes). 

 

The second half of the 20th century has been marked by improvements in living conditions and health (the Welfare State and Norional Heath Service.) Steam power has been replaced on the roads by the internal combustion engine (petrol and diesel) and the use of electricity for everything you can think of. Electricity throughout the century was made by using coal to heat water to produce steam to to turn turbines. From the 1980s computers have been used increasingly in every aspect of life. 

 

The 20th Century