A Potted History of England
A potted history is a brief, quick, short summary. It sets out the main facts to give you a rough idea of what happened during a historical period.
Why is it called potted?
It's named after potted meat You can’t get a whole cow into a pot of beef paste, but you can put in some tasty meat to make a sandwich.
Potted history
If you want to know everything about a period in history,
you need to research a whole library. No time for that!
So here's a potted history of England.
Are you ready? - it's quite a big pot!
Click here for a list of Multi-period Topics.
Click for Kings and Queens. (Click if you want A more detailed Potted History.)
Old Stone Age or Palaeolithic - about 1,000,000 years ago
Middle Stone Age or Mesolithic - about 11,000 years ago
People made tools out of stone but also from horn and bone, animal skin and wood. They were hunter-gatherers collecting food from plants and hunting animals. The Stone Age lasted a very very very very very very very very very very very very very very long time.
New Stone Age or Neolithic - about 6000 - 4500 years ago
People began farming, planting crops and keeping animals. This meant that they settled in one place. People began to live in villages with fields around them.
End: The Stone Age ended when people discovered how to make bronze.
↑ The Stone Age . . . . the Rest ↓
The Bronze Age - About 2500 BC until about 800 BC
People made pottery from clay which they fired in clay ovens. They discovered how to make objects out of bronze, a metal made from a mixture of copper and tin which they could melt in the pottery kilns. Stone tools still made and used during the Bronze Age.
End: From about 800 BC tools were increasingly made of iron.
The Iron Age About 800 BC until 43 AD
Much higher temperatures are needed to melt iron. Blacksmiths discovered ways to heat fires hotter than ever before enabling them make everyday tools out of iron, a much harder metal than bronze. Iron is also very common meaning that ordinary people could afford iron tools.
End: 43 AD is the date of the Roman invasion.
Romans 43 AD - 410 AD
Emperor Claudius invaded Britain in 43 AD making Britain part of the Roman Empire for the next 400 years. Fortresses were built and roads for the army to quickly cross the country. The first towns were built with paved streets, sewage systems, houses with under-floor heating, currency, taxes and public services. Englan comes into history with written records and books by Roman authors.
End: When Rome was attacked, the Roman army left Britain in 410 AD.
The Dark Ages 410 AD - about 1066
Little is known of this period (which includes the Anglo-Saxons) because no written records were kept after the Romans left. Historians do not agree when the Dark Ages came to an end. 1066 is when Duke William of Normandy invaded England to become King William the Conqueror. In 1086 Domesday Book was compiled giving the first written evidence of most English villages.
Anglo-Saxons 410 AD - 1066
In 410 AD when the Roman army left Britain, Angles, Saxons, Jutes and other tribes invaded Britain from northern Germany and Denmark eventually settling right across the country. Most English villages and towns have names given them by the Anglo-Saxons.
End: 600 years of Anglo-Saxon England ended in 1066 when William of Normandy conquered the country.
Vikings 793 AD - 954 AD
Viking warriors raided the British Isles stealing whatever they could and returning to Scandinavia. 793 AD is the date of the first Viking raid on Britain. Vikings eventually settled here and took over half of England.
End: In 954 AD the last of the Viking kings in England, Eric Bloodaxe of Northumbria was killed in battle. England was under the control of Anglo-Saxon kings once more.
Normans 1066 - 1154
The Norman Conquest. The invasion and conquest of England by Duke William of Normandy in 1066 transformed the country. William built a thousand castles to keep the Anglo-Saxons under control and rewarded his men by giving them land and lordships. William introduced a rigid feudal system whereby the King owned all the land; he rented manors out to his lords and they rented it out to the peasants. Everyone had a master and could do nothing without the master's permission.
End: The Norman period ended in 1154 in a civil war with Matilda and Stephen, two grandchildren of William I both fighting for the crown.
The Middle Ages 1154 - 1485
This period was called the Middle Ages by historians writing in the 15th and 16th centuries. The Middle Ages lies in the middle between the Roman Empire and early modern times. Under the feudal system everyone was under the control of their lord. They paid rent for their land, they had to work on the lord's land and even ask his permission to get married. 1215 saw the beginnings of democracy when King John was forced to sign the Magna Carta acknowledging that kings also had to follow the law of the land. The Black Death struck Britain 1348-50 killing some 30-45% of the population. This caused the end of the feudal system as lords had few peasants to rule over and had to pay them to farm their land; many peasants were able to buy their onw land to farm. The Wars of the Roses 1455-1485 were a series of English civil wars for control of the throne of England fought between supporters of two branches of the House of Plantagenet: the House of Lancaster, associated with the red rose and the House of York, symbol the white rose.
End: The death of the Yorkist Richard III, killed at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485 by Lancastrian Henry VII, marks the end of the Middle Ages.
The Tudor period 1485 - 1603 - largely the 16th century
A period named after the Tudor family who ruled England for over a hundred years. 1485 saw Henry Tudor victorious in battle over Richard III to become King Henry VII. The Break with Rome: The period was one of religious turmoil initiated by Henry VIII breaking the Church of England from the Roman Catholic Church and the nationalisation of monastic institutions. British explorers sailed around the world and claimed foreign lands for the Crown - the beginnings of the British Empire.
End: In 1603 Queen Elizabeth I died, last of the Tudor family to rule England.
Stuarts and the Civil War 1603 - 1714 - largely the 17th century
The first Stuart king was King James VI of Scotland, a cousin of Elizabeth. During the reign of his son Charles, the English Civil War took place between Parliamentarians and Royalists, resulting in the execution of Charles I (1649). Charles tried to rule the country without the agreement of Parliament. A republic was established under Oliver Cromwell known as The Protectorate (1653–1659). The Stuarts returned to the throne in 1660, though another Stuart king, James II was deposed in the Glorious Revolution (1688) as a result of his Roman Catholic sympathies. His daughter and nephew were offered the throne. England (and Wales) united with Scotland in 1707 to form Great Britain. While William and Mary were the monarchs, they ruled only in partnership with Parliament.
End: The rule of the Stuart family ended with the death in 1714 of Mary's sister, Anne who had no children to succeed her.
The Georgians 1714 - 1820 - largely the 18th century
After the death of Queen Anne, who had no heirs, George of Hanover was invited to be king. Anne had many closer relatives but they were all Roman Catholic and excluded from the throne. The period saw great changes in farming, the Agricultural Revolution, making agriculture more productive. The population of Britain grew rapidly from 5 million in 1700 to 9 million by 1801. The period saw the Industrial Revolution and the growth of the British Empire across the world. 1775-1783 saw the American War of Independence with the United States breaking away from being a British colony.
End: The brother of George IV, William IV is usually included as the last of the Georgian kings.
1837 - 1901 - largely the 19th century
18-year-old Queen Victoria witnessed a period of enormous change with increasing industrialisation, mechanisation, new inventions, scientific discoveries, and social change. The balance of the population shifted from the countryside to the industrial towns where many people lived in squalid conditions.
On her death in 1901 she became the longest reigning monarch in British history (63 years) until our present Queen surpassed it.
End: The Victorian era ended with the death of Queen Victoria.
The 20th Century 1900 - 1999
The First World War 1914-1918 took place between the Allies (Britain and the British Empire, France, Belgium, Russia, the USA) and the Central Powers (Germany, Austria, Hungary, Bulgaria, Turkey) and lasted four terrible years. Germany was defeated. With 18 million people killed, it was hoped that the war would be the war to end all wars.
The Second World War 1939-1945 was fought between the Allied Powers (Britain, France, Russia, China, the USA) and the Axis Powers (Germany, Italy, Japan). Germany was ruled by Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party who wanted to rule all of Europe. When German troops invaded Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany. By summer 1941 the Germans had invaded France, Belgium, Holland, Luxembourg, Denmark, Norway, Greece, Yugoslavia and the USSR (Russia). On 6 June 1944 (D-Day) the Allied armies crossed the English Channel to free France, one year later the Allies invaded Germany and the Germans surrendered.
Postwar
After the war the British Empire was dismantled, granting the independence to India and Pakistan in 1947, then to the other Asian, African and Caribbean colonies. The ex-colonies formed the British Commonwealth, now the Commonwealth of Nations of 53 states.
In 1952, Elizabeth II (b 1926) ascended the throne at the age of 26.
The second half of the 20th century saw improvements in living conditions and health (the Welfare State and National 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; later in the century using solar and wind power. From the 1980s computers have been used increasingly in every aspect of life.
Weblinks
These links take you out of this website.
