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Wars Of The Three Kingdoms

Wars of the Three Kingdoms

The Wars of the Three Kingdoms were an intertwined series of conflicts that took place in Scotland, Ireland, and England between 1639 and 1651 at a time when these countries had come under the Personal Rule of the same monarch. The best known of these conflicts is the English Civil War. The wars were the outcome of tensions between king and subjects over religious and civil issues. Religious disputes centered on whether religion was to be dictated by the monarch or the choice of the subject, who had a direct relationship with God. The related civil questions were to what extent the king's rule was constrained by parliaments - in particular his right to raise taxes and armed forces without consent. In addition, the wars also had an element of national conflict, as Ireland and Scotland rebelled against England's primacy within the Three Kingdoms. The victory of the English Parliament — ultimately under Oliver Cromwell — over the King, the Irish and the Scots helped to determine the future of Britain as a constitutional monarchy with power centred on London. The Wars of the Three Kingdoms also parallelled a number of similar revolts at the same time in Europe — such as the Fronde in France and the rebellions of the Netherlands, Catalonia and Portugal against Spanish rule. Some historians have seen this period as one of General Crisis in Europe, characterised by the rebellion of conservative societies against centralising Absolutist monarchs. The Wars included the Bishops' Wars of 1639 and 1640, the Scottish Civil War of 1644–5; the Irish Rebellion of 1641, Confederate Ireland, 1642–9 and the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland in 1649 (collectively the Irish Confederate Wars); and the First, Second and Third English Civil Wars of 1642–6, 1648–9 and 1650–51. These linked conflicts were named the Wars of the Three Kingdoms by recent historians aiming to have a unified overview rather than treating some of the conflicts as background to the English Civil War. Some have described them as the British Civil Wars, but this can be misleading as the kingdoms did not become a single political entity until the Act of Union 1800. Act of Union 1800 Alternate meanings: Three Kingdoms (disambiguation)

Background

The unity of the Three Kingdoms under one monarch was quite a recent development. Since 1541, monarchs of England had also ruled the Kingdom of Ireland through a separate Irish Parliament, while Wales was made part of the Kingdom of England. With the Reformation, King Henry VIII made himself head of the Protestant Church of England and Roman Catholicism was outlawed in England and Wales, but remained the religion of most people in Ireland. In the separate Kingdom of Scotland the Protestant Reformation was a popular movement led by John Knox. The Scottish Parliament legislated for a National Presbyterian church, the Presbyterian Church of Scotland, and the Catholic Mary, Queen of Scots, was forced to abdicate in favour of her son James VI of Scotland. He grew up under a regency disputed between Catholic and Protestant factions, then took power and aspired to be an "universall King" favouring the English Episcopalian system of bishops appointed by the king. In 1584 he introduced bishops, but met vigorous opposition and was forced to concede that the General Assembly running the Kirk should also continue. Calvinists reacted against the formal liturgy of the Book of Common Order moving increasingly to extempore prayer, though this was opposed by an Episcopalian faction.

Religious Confrontation in Scotland

James remained Protestant, taking care to maintain his hopes of succession to the English throne, and duly also became James I of England in 1603 and moved to London. His diplomatic and political skills were now fully engaged in dealing with the English Court and Parliament at the same time as running Scotland by writing to the Privy Council of Scotland and controlling the Parliament of Scotland through the Lords of the Articles. He stopped the General Assembly from meeting, then increased the number of Scottish Bishops and in 1618 held a General Assembly and pushed through Five Articles of Episcopalian practices which were widely boycotted. In 1625 he was succeeded by his son Charles I who was less skilful or restrained and was crowned in St Giles Cathedral, Edinburgh, in 1633 with full Anglican rites. Opposition to his attempts to enforce Anglican practices reached a flashpoint when he introduced a Book of Common Prayer. Charles' confrontation with the Scots came to a head in 1639, when Charles tried and failed to coerce Scotland by military means. In some respects, this revolt also represented Scottish resentment at being sidelined within the Stuart monarchies since James I's accession to the throne of England. See Also Bishops Wars

England

Charles shared his father's belief in the Divine Right of Kings and his assertion of this led to a serious break between Charles and his English Parliament. While the Church of England remained dominant, a powerful Puritan minority who made up around one third of the members of Parliament had much in common with the Presbyterian Scots. The English Parliament also had repeated disputes with the King over such subjects as taxation, military expenditure and the role of parliament in government. While James I had held the same opinions as his son with regard to the King's Rights, he had enough charisma to persuade the Parliament to accept his policies. Charles did not have this skill in human management and so, when faced with a crisis in 1639–42, he was unable to prevent his Kingdoms from sliding into civil war. When Charles approached the Parliament to pay for a campaign agaisnt the Scots, they refused, declared themselves to be permanently in session and put forward a long list of civil and religious grievances that Charles would have to remedy before they approved any new legislation. :See also the English Civil War (Background).

Ireland

Meanwhile, in the Kingdom of Ireland which had been declared in 1541, but only fully conquered in 1603, tensions were also mounting. Charles I's Lord Deputy there, Thomas Wentworth had antagonised the native Irish Catholics by repeated initiatives to confiscate their lands and grant them to English colonists. He had also angered them by enforcing new taxes but denying Roman Catholics full rights as subjects. What made this situation explosive was his idea, in 1639, to offer Irish Catholics the reforms they had been looking for in return for them raising and paying for an Irish army to put down the Scottish rebellion. Although the army was to be officered by Protestants, the idea of an Irish Catholic army being used to enforce what was seen by many as tyrannical government, horrified both the Scottish and the English Parliament, who in response threatened to invade Ireland.

War Breaks Out

See Also
- English Civil War
- Irish Confederate Wars
- Scottish Civil War Modern historians have emphasised how the Civil Wars were not inevitable, but that all sides resorted to violence in a situation marked by mutual distrust and paranoia. Charles' initial failure to bring the Bishops Wars to a quick end also made other discontented groups feel that force could be used successfully to get what they wanted. Alienated by British Protestant domination and frightened by the rhetoric of the English and Scottish Parliaments, a small group of Irish conspirators launched the Irish Rebellion of 1641, ostensibly in support of the King's Rights. The rising was marked by widespread assaults on The British Protestant communities in Ireland, sometimes culminating in massacres. Rumours spread in England and Scotland that the killings had the King's sanction and that this was a foretaste of what was in store for them if the Kings' Irish troops landed in Britain. As a result, the English Parliament refused to pay for a royal army to put down the rebellion in Ireland and instead raised their own armed forces. The King did likewise, rallying those Royalists (some of them members of Parliament) who believed that loyalty to the Legitimate King was the most important political principle. The English Civil War broke out in 1642. The Scottish Covenanters, as the Presbyterians called themselves, sided with the English Parliament, joined the war in 1643, and played a major role in the Parliament's victory. The King's forces were ground down by the efficiency of Parliament's New Model Army - backed by the financial muscle of the City of London. In 1646, Charles I surrendered. After failing to come to compromise with Parliament, he was arrested and executed in 1649. In Ireland, the rebel Irish Catholics formed their own government - Confederate Ireland with the intention of helping the Royalists in return for religious toleration and political autonomy. Troops from England and Scotland fought in Ireland, and Irish Confederate troops mounted an expedition to Scotland in 1644, sparking the Scottish Civil War. In Scotland, the Royalists had a series of victories in 1644-45, but were crushed with the end of the first English Civil War and the return of the main Covenanter armies to Scotland. After the end of the first English Civil War, the victorious Parliamentary forces, now under Oliver Cromwell invaded Ireland and crushed the Royalist-Confederate alliance there in the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland in 1649. Their alliance with the Scottish Covanters had also broken down, and the Scots crowned Charles II as king of the Three Kingdoms. Cromwell therefore embarked on a further conquest of Scotland in 1650-51. By the end of the wars, the Three Kingdoms were a unitary state called the English Commonwealth, ostensibly a republic, but having many characteristics of a military dictatorship.

Main events

- 1637: Charles attempts to impose Anglican services on the Presbyterian Church of Scotland, Jenny Geddes starts riots
- 1638: Signing of the National Covenant.
- 1639: Conflict between Covenanter and Royalists in Scotland which began with the Covenanters seizing the City of Aberdeen in February
- 1639: The Bishops' War Charles brings his troops into Scotland but decided not to attack but negotiate instead. The Treaty of Berwick is signed — peace agreement between the Scottish army and Charles I in June
- 1640 The English Short Parliament is recalled in order for Charles to obtain money to finance his military struggle with Scotland
- 1640: The Second Bishops' War or 'Second War of the Covenant' broke out in August. An army of Covenanters crossed the Tweed and overran the English force at the Battle of Newburn marching on the city of Newcastle.
- 1640: The Treaty of Ripon left Newcastle in Scots hands who received a large tribute from Charles.
- 1640-1660 The English Long Parliament convenes in November as Charles needs to raise finances after being bankrupted by the cost of the Bishops' Wars
- 1641 Irish Rebellion (also know as the Irish Rising). Alliance of Ulster Catholics and the Old English to form the Catholic Confederation who won a battle against Crown forces at Julianstown Bridge near Drogheda in December
- 1642 A Protestant Scots army is sent by the Covenanters to Ulster to defend the Protestant plantations. Ulster
- 1642-6 The First English Civil War
- 1642 Battle of Edgehill - inconclusive first battle in English Civil War
- 1643 Ceasefire between the English Royalists and Irish Confederates declared.
- 1644 Battle of Marston Moor - major defeat for the royalists by the Parliamentarians and Scots
- 1644 Scottish Civil War started by Montrose
- 1645 New Model Army formed
- 1645 Battle of Naseby - Royalist army crushed, effective end of First Civil war
- 1645 Montrose wins Royalist control of Scotland at Battle of Kilsyth, subsequently defeated at Battle of Philiphaugh
- 1646 May, Charles I surrenders to Scots Covenanters, who hand him over to English Parliament
- 1646 battle of Benburb Irish Confederate army under Owen Roe O'Neill defeats Scottish Covenanter army in Ulster.
- 1647 battle of Dungans Hill and battle of Knocknanauss Parliamentarian forces smash the Irish Confederate armies of Leinster and Munster
- 1648-9 The Second English Civil War
- 1648 Ormonde Peace - formal alliance between Irish Confederates and English Royalists declared
- 1648 Battle of Preston (1648) - Scottish Covenanter army invades England to restore Charles I, defeated by Parliamentarians
- 1649 Execution of Charles I
- 1649 The battle of Rathmines, Irish-Royalist force routed by Parliamentarians outside Dublin, New Model Army invades Ireland - begind Cromwellian conquest of Ireland
- 1649 Cromwell takes Drogheda and Wexford
- 1650 Third English Civil War begins
- 1650 Montrose tries to launch Royalist uprising in Scotland, defeated, arreted and executed by the Covenanters.
- 1650 Charles II takes oath for Solemn League and Covenant, crowned by Scots in Edinburgh
- 1650 Cromwell invades Scotland, smashes Scottish army at battle of Dunbar
- 1651 Henry Ireton besieges Limerick
- 1651 June Capture of the Isles of Scilly by Admiral Robert Blake
- 1651 Sep 3 Defeat of Charles II and the Scots at Worcester ends the Third Civil War. Charles II goes into exile in France.
- 1652 Surrender of last Irish stronghold in Galway - guerrilla warfare continues
- 1653 Surrender of last organised Irish troops in Cavan.

Aftermath

While the Wars of the Three Kingdoms pre-figured many of the changes that would shape modern Britain, in the short term it resolved little. The English Commonwealth was neither a monarchy nor a real republic. In practise Oliver Cromwell exercised power rather informally, and without a written constitution. There was religious freedom under this regime, but not for Roman Catholics. The Church of England was abolished, as was the House of Lords, but power was never given to the House of Commons and there were no fresh elections. Nor did Cromwell and his supporters move in the direction of a popular democracy, as the more radical fringes of the Parliamentarians, such as the Levellers wanted. Ireland and Scotland were occupied by the New Model Army during the Commonwealth period. In Ireland, almost all lands belonging to Irish Catholics were confiscated as punishment for the rebellion of 1641; harsh Penal Laws were also passed against this community. Thousands of Parliamentarian soldiers were settled in Ireland on confiscated lands. The Parliaments of Ireland and Scotland were abolished. In theory, they were represented in the English Parliament, but since this body was never given real powers, this was insignificant. When Cromwell died in 1659, the Commonwealth fell apart, without major violence and Charles II was restored as King of England, Scotland and Ireland. Under the English Restoration, the political system was restored to what it had been before the wars. Those responsible for the regicide of Charles I were themselve executed or imprisoned for life. Cromwell's corpse was dug up and symbolically hanged. There was also harsh repression against religious and political radicals who were held responsible for the wars. Scotland was returned its Parliament, some confiscated Irish land was returned and the New Model Army stood down. However, the issues that had caused the wars - religion, the power of Parliament and the relationship between the Three Kingdoms had not been resolved, only postponed and they would be fought over again in the Glorious Revolution of 1689. It was only after this point that the features of modern Britain that were seen in the Civil Wars - a Protestant constitutional monarchy with England dominant and a strong standing army - emerged permanently.

External links

- http://www.british-civil-wars.co.uk/index.htm Extensive site on the Wars of the Three Kingdoms
- [http://www.historybookshop.com/articles/commentary/wars-of-three-kingdoms-chronology-ht.asp Chronology of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms]
- [http://www.historybookshop.com/articles/commentary/civil-wars-of-three-kingdoms-ht.asp The British and Irish Civil Wars] article by Jane Ohlmeyer who argues that the English Civil War was just one of an interlocking set of conflicts that encompassed the British Isles in the mid-seventeenth century
- [http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1373/is_1998_Nov/ai_54879255 The English Context of the British Civil Wars] John Adamson argues that the importance of the Celtic fringe in the events of the 1640s has been exaggerated
- [http://www.templum.freeserve.co.uk/history/civilwars/scottish_civil_war.htm Scottish Civil War 1644-5]
- [http://www.usna.edu/EnglishDept/ilv/reb1641.htm Irish Rebellion 1641 and Cromwellian Occupation]
- [http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/state/nations/ireland_kingdoms_01.shtml Ireland and the War of the Three Kingdoms]
- [http://www.open2.net/civilwar/index.html English Civil War]

Scotland

Scotland (Alba in Gaelic) is a nation in northwest Europe and a constituent country of the United Kingdom. The name originally meant Land of the Gaels (see below). The country occupies the northern third of the island of Great Britain and shares a land border to the south with England and is bounded by the North Sea on the east and the Atlantic Ocean on the west. Its capital city is Edinburgh. Despite no longer being an independent sovereign state, Scotland is still considered a country in its own right. Scotland existed as an independent Kingdom until 1 May 1707, when the Act of Union 1707 merged Scotland with the Kingdom of England to create the Kingdom of Great Britain. The flag of Scotland — the Saltire — is thought to be the oldest national flag still in use. The patron saint of Scotland is Saint Andrew, and Saint Andrew's Day is the 30 November. There are currently attempts to create an additional national holiday on this day.

Etymology

The English language name Scotland could date from at least the first half of the 10th century, when it was used in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. The word Scot- was borrowed from Latin. We cannot assume Scotland was being used here to mean anything other than Land of the Gaels, just like Latin Scotia. Scottish kings adopted the title Basileus/Rex Scottorum (= High King/King of the Gaels) and Rex Scotiae (King of Gael-Land) some time in the 11th century. The earliest attribution of the latter Latin title was by the Germany-based Irish writer Marianus Scotus, recording the death of King Máel Coluim mac Cináeda as Moelcoluim Rex Scotiae, for the year 1034. In taking this title, they were likely influenced by the style Imperator Scottorum known to have been employed by Brian Bóruma in 1005. In the early 13th century, the Scotto-Norman author of de Situ Albanie protested that Scotia was a corrupt word for what should be called Albania; but by then Scotia was becoming the norm in Latin, French and English; and hence Scotia and its derivitives prevailed in all languages except the Celtic ones. The Kingdom of Scotland has traditionally been regarded as being united in 843, by Cináed mac Ailpín, King of the Picts, the man who is known to the modern English-speaker as King Kenneth I of Scotland.

History

See also the main article: History of Scotland. The written history of Scotland largely began with the arrival of the Roman Empire in Britain, when the Romans occupied what is now England and Wales, administering it as a Roman province called Britannia. To the north was territory not governed by the Romans—Caledonia, peopled by the Picts. From a classical historical viewpoint Scotland seemed a peripheral country, slow to gain advances filtering out from the Mediterranean fount of civilisation, but as knowledge of the past increases it has become apparent that some developments were earlier and more advanced than previously thought, and that the seaways were very important to Scottish history. The country's lengthy struggle with England, its more powerful neighbour to the south, was the cause of the Wars of Scottish Independence, forcing Scotland to rely on trade, cultural and often strategic ties with a number of European powers, most notably France. In these, the Scots repudiated the English king's assertions of paramountcy. They fought firstly under the leadership of Sir William Wallace and Andrew de Moray in support of John Balliol, and later under that of Robert the Bruce. Bruce, crowned as King Robert I in 1306, won a decisive victory over the English at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314. Battle of Bannockburn From roughly the end of the 14th century, Scotland began to show a split into two cultural areas — the mainly Scots, or English, speaking Lowlands, and the mainly Gaelic-speaking Highlands. Gaelic persisted in remote parts of the southwest, which had formed part of the rival kingdom of Galloway during the early medieval period, probably up until the late 1700s. Historically, the Lowlands were closer to the mainstream European culture, and adopted a variant of the feudal system after the Norman Conquest of England. A number of major families of Norman ancestry, such as the Bruce, Douglas, and Stewart families, provided most of the monarchs after approximately 1100. By comparison, the clan system of the Highlands formed one of the region's more distinctive features, with a number of powerful clans remaining dominant until after the Act of Union. It is worth noting that the Western Isles, along with Orkney and Shetland, were part of Norway until 1266 and 1468 respectively; the culture of these islands, in many ways, remained distinct from the rest of Scotland until the modern period. In 1603, the Scottish King James VI inherited the throne of England, and became James I of England. James moved to London, only returning to Scotland once. Although he subsequently styled himself as the King of Great Britain, this was a personal union: the two nations shared a head of state but remained separate kingdoms, with the exception of a brief period when Oliver Cromwell overthrew the monarchy and Scotland was under English military occupation. In 1707, the Scottish and English Parliaments enacted the Acts of Union, which merged the Kingdom of Scotland with the Kingdom of England, creating the Kingdom of Great Britain. The Union dissolved both the English and the Scottish Parliaments, and transferred all their powers to a new Parliament sitting in London which then became the Parliament of the United Kingdom. However, most of Scotland's institutions remained separate, notably the country's legal system and its established church; these distinctions remain to the present day. In 1801, Scotland became part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, when the Kingdom of Great Britain merged with the Kingdom of Ireland. Since 1922, Scotland has been one of the four constituent nations (along with England, Northern Ireland and Wales) of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. In 1997 the people of Scotland voted to create a new devolved Scottish Parliament, subsequently established by the UK government under the Scotland Act 1998. Following the Act of Union and the subsequent Scottish Enlightenment and Industrial Revolution, Scotland became one of the commercial, intellectual and industrial powerhouses of Europe. Its industrial decline following the Second World War was particularly acute, but in recent decades the country has enjoyed something of a cultural and economic renaissance, fuelled in part by a resurgent financial services sector, the proceeds of North Sea oil and gas, and latterly the devolved parliament.

Geography

Clan Grant Main article: Geography of Scotland. Scotland comprises the northern part of the island of Great Britain; it is bordered on the south by England. Scotland's territorial extent is generally that established by the 1237 Treaty of York between Scotland and England and the 1266 Treaty of Perth between Scotland and Norway. Exceptions include the Isle of Man, which is now a crown dependency outside the United Kingdom, Orkney and Shetland, which are Scottish rather than Norwegian, and Berwick-upon-Tweed, which was defined as subject to the laws of England by the 1746 Wales and Berwick Act. The country consists of a mainland area plus several island groups, including Shetland, Orkney, and the Hebrides, divided into the Inner Hebrides and Outer Hebrides. Three main geographical and geological areas make up the mainland: from north to south, the generally mountainous Highlands containing Ben Nevis, Britain's highest mountain, the low-lying Central Belt, and the hilly Southern Uplands. The majority of the Scottish population resides in the Central Belt, which contains three of the country's six largest cities (Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Stirling) and many large towns. Most of the remaining population lives in the North-East Lowlands, where two of the remaining three cities (Aberdeen and Dundee) are situated. The final city, Inverness, is situated where the River Ness meets the Moray Firth, on the Great Glen Fault between the North-West Highlands and the Cairngorms. Highest maximum temperature: 32.9°C (91.2°F) at Greycrook, near Newtown St. Boswells, Borders on 9 August 2003. Lowest minimum temperature: -27.2°C (-17.0°F) at Braemar, Aberdeenshire on 11 February 1895 and 10 January 1982 and at Altnaharra, Highland on 30 December 1995. [http://www.metoffice.com/climate/uk/location/scotland/#temperature]

Major cities

The six designated cities in descending order of population size:
- Glasgow
- Edinburgh, the capital
- Aberdeen
- Dundee
- Inverness
- Stirling Scottish towns:
- List of burghs in Scotland

Waterways

- Major Rivers:
- The Clyde, The Dee, The Don, The Forth, The Tay, The Tweed, The Spey, ...
- Firths:
- Solway, Clyde, Cromarty, Dornoch, Forth, Lorne, Moray, Tay
- Sea Lochs (fjords):
- Loch Linnhe, Loch Fyne, Loch Long, Loch Etive, Loch Sunart, Loch Nevis, Loch Hourn, Loch Broom, Loch Eil
- Freshwater Lochs (lakes) include:
- Loch Ness, Loch Lomond, Loch Morar, Loch Tay, Loch Rannoch, Loch Awe, Loch Shiel, Loch Maree, The Lake of Menteith
- Artificial & Enhanced waterways include:
- Caledonian Canal, Crinan Canal, Forth and Clyde Canal, Union Canal
- See Also Falkirk Wheel

Geology

When vulcanism actively occurred in East Lothian, 350 million years ago, the rocks which now comprise Scotland lay close to the equator, and formed part of the newly amalgamated supercontinent of Pangaea. The continental plates making up Pangaea continued to converge, and a major collision occurred with the continent of Gondwana. The northern and southern parts of the island of Great Britain became adjoined only 75 million years before the onset of vulcanism in East Lothian. Before then, Scotland lay on the margin of the Laurentian continent, which included North America and Greenland. England and Wales lay some 40° of latitude further south, adjacent to Africa and South America in the Gondwanan continent. In the Early Ordovician, approximately 475 million years ago, England and Wales, on the Avalonian plate, rifted away from Gondwana and drifted northward towards Laurentia. The Iapetus Ocean, which separated the two land masses, began to close. By the mid-Silurian, about 420 million years ago, its margins had become attached along the Iapetus Suture, which roughly follows a line running West to East from the Solway Firth to Northumberland. When the later episode of vulcanism occurred, approximately 270 million years ago, Scotland still comprised part of Pangaea, but had drifted northward. East Lothian stood at about 8°North. Consolidation of Pangaea had continued so that the nearest ocean, the Tethys seaway, lay between Eurasia and Africa. Siccar Point in Berwickshire, Scotland, is where James Hutton (the "father" of modern geology) first observed this classic unconformity and recognized the meaning of stratigraphy.

Government and politics

Government

As one of the constituent parts of the United Kingdom, Scotland is represented in the Parliament of the United Kingdom in London. The Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh has the power to govern the country on Scotland-specific matters and has a limited power to vary income tax. The United Kingdom Parliament retains responsibility for Scotland's defence, international relations and certain other areas. The Scottish Parliament is not a sovereign authority, and the UK Parliament could, in theory, overrule or even abolish it at any time. For the purposes of local government, Scotland is divided into 32 unitary authority districts. Popular folk-memory continues to divide Scotland into 33 traditional counties.

Head of state

traditional counties]] Queen Elizabeth II, head of state of the United Kingdom, is descended from King James VI, King of Scots, the first Scottish monarch to also be King of England (James I, King of England from 1603). While great controversy has simmered amongst the Scottish public over her official title since her coronation (many believe that, being the first Queen Elizabeth of Great Britain, she should use the regnal name "Elizabeth I"), the courts of Scotland have confirmed "Elizabeth II" as her official title. She has said that in the future monarchs will follow the international ordinal tradition that, where a monarch reigns in a number of non-independent territories (or independent territories that agree to share a monarch) that each have a differing number of previous monarchs of the same name, the highest ordinal used in any of the territories is the one used across all (see List of regnal numerals of future British monarchs). Monarchs between 1603 and 1707, such as James VI and I and James VII and II, reigned over separate states and hence used a dual ordinal (see Personal union). Properly, the Scottish monarch was known as King of Scots or Queen of Scots, and referred to as "your Grace", rather than "your Majesty".

Scots Law

Scotland retains its own unique legal system, based on Roman law, which combines features of both civil law and common law. The terms of union with England specified the retention of separate systems. The barristers being called advocates, and the judges of the high court for civil cases are also the judges for the high court for criminal cases. Scots Law differs from England's common law system. Formerly, there were several regional law systems in Scotland, one of which was Udal Law (also called allodail or odal law) in Shetland and Orkney. This was a direct descendant of Old Norse Law, but was abolished in 1611. Despite this, Scottish courts have acknowledged the supremacy of udal law in some property cases as recently as the 1990s. There is a movement to restore udal law[http://www.udallaw.com/] to the islands as part of a devolution of power from Edinburgh to Shetland and Orkney. The laws regarding the nobility are also different in Scotland. Lords known as "Barons" in England are known as "Lords of Parliament." Gentlemen known as "Barons" in Scotland are not members of the House of Lords, as their titles (although still legitimate) are based on the old system of feudal baronies. Various systems based on common Celtic or Brehon Laws also survived in the Highlands until the 1800s.

Politics

See main article: Politics of Scotland, also Politics of the United Kingdom Politics of the United Kingdom Historically the politics of Scotland have reflected those of the UK as a whole, although with some differences. For example, besides the main UK-wide political parties (Labour, Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats) a number of Scottish-specific parties operate. These include the Scottish National Party (SNP) which is Scotland's second largest party and forms the main opposition in Parliament to the Labour-Liberal Democrats coalition, as well as the Scottish Socialist Party (SSP) and the Scottish Green Party. These parties became more of a force in Scottish politics after the establishment of the Scottish Parliament in 1998. Unlike England, which has a more of a left/right split politically, the political right in Scotland is actually amongst the smallest political groupings with the four main Parties all coming from a mix of far-left to moderate-left philosophies. The traditional political divides of left and right have also intersected with arguments over devolution, which all the UK-wide parties have supported to some degree throughout their history (although both Labour and the Conservatives have swithered a number of times between supporting and opposing it). However, now that devolution has occurred, the main argument about Scotland's constitutional status remains between those who support Scottish independence and those who oppose it. Recent trends indicate, according to the Joseph Rowntree [http://www.jrrt.org.uk/FINDINGS.pdf Reform Trust "State of the Nation Poll"] 2004, that 66% of Scots would like the Scottish Parliament to have more powers, while only 2% would like to see the powers returned to the House of Commons and Whitehall, with 21% happy with the status quo.

Language

Scotland has three distinct languages: English, Gaelic, and Scots. Almost all Scots speak Scottish Standard English. It is estimated by the General Register Office for Scotland that 30% of the population are also fluent in Scots, a West Germanic language sister to the English language. Slightly more than 1% of the population are native Gaelic speakers, a Celtic language similar to Irish. Eilean Siar is the only unitary council region of Scotland where Gaelic is spoken by a majority of the population and that fact is reflected in the use of Gaelic in its official name. Almost all Gaelic speakers also speak fluent English. By the time of James VI's accession to the English throne, the old Scottish Court and Parliament spoke and wrote in Scots, also known as Lowland Scots or Lallans (although strictly speaking Lallans is a literary dialect of the Scots language). Scots is widely believed to have developed from the Northumbrian form of Anglo-Saxon, spoken in Bernicia which, in the 6th century, conquered the Brythonic kingdom of Gododdin (modern-day Lothian) and renamed its capital, Dunedin, to Edinburgh. The influence of settlers from the Low Countries and Norway in the east coast burghs founded from the reign of David I onwards was also an important factor in the development of the language, however. Scots contains a number of loanwords from Gaelic. Equally, there is a strong movement in the Aberdeen area to have Doric, the dialect of Scots spoken around Aberdeen, recognised as a language. In addition, there is a movement to revive Norn, a dialect of Old Norse which died out in the 19th century, on Orkney and Shetland. Town names on signs in Shetland are written in both languages. The Scottish Parliament recognises both English and Gaelic as official languages of Scotland, both receiving "equal respect" although not equal validity. Gaelic received official recognition through the Gaelic Language (Scotland) Act 2005. The Scots language was also officially recognised as a "regional or minority language" under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages ratified by the United Kingdom in 2001, and the Scottish Executive, has promised to provide support in their Partnership Agreement 2003. The [http://www.scotsdictionaries.org.uk/ Scottish Language Dictionaries] receive some state funding via the Scottish Arts Council.

Culture

Main article: Culture of Scotland Scotland has a civic and ethnic culture distinct from that of the rest of the British Isles. It originates from various differences, some entrenched as part of the Act of Union, others facets of nationhood not readily defined but readily identifiable.

Scottish education

The system of Education in Scotland is also separate, and has a distinctive history as the first country since Sparta in classical Greece to implement a system of general public education. The early roots were in the Education Act of 1496 which first introduced compulsory education for the eldest sons of nobles, then the principle of general public education was set with the Reformation establishment of the national Kirk which in 1561 set out a national programme for spiritual reform, including a school in every parish. In 1633 the Parliament of Scotland introduced a tax on local landowners to fund this, subsequently strengthened with the Education Act of 1696 which remained in force until 1872. The Act of Union guaranteed the rights of the Scottish universities and confirmed the position of the Kirk, maintaining Scotland's pre-eminence in public education. Education finally came under the control of the state rather than the Kirk and became compulsory for all children from the implementation of the Education Act of 1872 onwards. As a result, for over two hundred years Scotland had a higher percentage of its population educated at primary, secondary and tertiary levels than any other country in Europe. The differences in education have manifested themselves in different ways, but most noticeably in the number of Scots who went on to become leaders in their fields during the 18th and 19th centuries. The then-Deputy First Minister Jim Wallace stated in October 2004 that Scotland still produces a higher number of university and college graduates per head than anywhere else in Europe. School students in Scotland sit Standard Grade exams while students in England sit GCSE exams, and then a broad range of Higher Grade exams rather than becoming more specialised under the English A-level system. Following this, a Scottish university's honours degree takes four years of study as opposed to three in the rest of the UK. The university systems in several Commonwealth countries show marked affinities with the Scottish rather than the English system.

Banking and currency

Finance in Scotland also features unique characteristics. Although the Bank of England remains the central bank for the UK Government, three Scottish corporate banks still issue their own banknotes: (the Bank of Scotland, the Royal Bank of Scotland and the Clydesdale Bank). These notes have no status as legal tender in England, Wales or Northern Ireland; but in practice they are universally accepted throughout the UK (including in Northern Ireland, where Irish banks also issue their own banknotes), as well as in the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands). The Royal Bank of Scotland still produces a £1 note, unique amongst British banks. The full range of notes commonly accepted are £1, £5, £10, £20, £50 and £100. Bank of England currency is also accepted as legal currency in Scotland. (See British banknotes for further discussion) The only legal tender, by a strict definition, in Scotland is coinage of the Royal Mint (including gold); by statute, Bank of England notes below the value of £5 are legal tender, but none are currently circulating. No Bank of England notes in use, or any of the Scottish banknotes, are legal tender in Scotland. In practice this has little effect, as creditors are obliged to accept any "reasonable" attempt to settle a debt under Scots law. All four sets of banknotes are freely accepted in Scotland, and can be considered legal currency, though it is unusual for notes over £20 to be used in normal business. The pound Scots, which ceased being used with the Act of Union, is still sometimes invoked. Originally the same value as the pound sterling, today it is treated as being worth one-twelfth of a pound sterling, or eight and a third pence, the value it had in 1707. It only exists in a legal sense; generally in archaic laws or bequests, with values given either in pounds Scots or in merks, another archaic unit of currency. The merk, or mark, was worth around thirteen or fourteen shillings Scots — just over one English shilling. Both the Bank of Scotland and the Bank of England were founded by William Paterson of Dumfries. In addition the modern system of branch banking (in which banks maintain a nationwide system of offices rather than one or two central offices) originated in Scotland. Only strong political pressure during the 19th century prevented the resultant strong banking system from taking over banking in England. However, although Scottish banks proved unwelcome in England at the time, their business model became widely copied, firstly in England and later in the rest of the world. The Savings Bank movement was created in Scotland in 1810 by the Reverend Henry Duncan as a means of allowing his parishioners to save smaller amounts of money than the major banks would accept as deposits at that time. His model for the Ruthwell Parish Bank was adopted by well-to-do sponsors throughout the world, with most of the British savings banks eventually amalgamating to form the Trustee Savings Bank - more recently merged with the commercial bank, Lloyds Bank, to form Lloyds TSB - and the American examples becoming a Savings and Loan Association. See [http://www.savingsbanksmuseum.co.uk/] for further information.

Sport

Savings and Loan Association Scotland also has its own sporting competitions distinct from the rest of the UK, such as the Scottish Football League and the Scottish Rugby Union. This gives the country independent representation at many international sporting events such as the football World Cup and various rugby tournaments such as the Six Nations. Scotland cannot compete in the Olympic Games independently however, and Scottish athletes must compete as part of the Great Britain team if they wish to take part. Scotland does however send its own team to compete in the Commonwealth Games. Association Football is the most popular sport in the country, both played and watched. Innovations such as a passing style of play, a team working as a unit, half-time and free-kicks were introduced by Queen's Park F.C., all of which were later incorporated and remain in the modern game. Their Hampden Park home, the world's first and oldest international football stadium, holds several European attendance records including 149,415 watching a Scottish international. The Scottish Football Association is the second oldest national football association in the world, with the Scottish national football team playing and hosting the world's first ever international football match. The Scottish Cup is the world's oldest national trophy. The oldest professional football club in Scotland is Kilmarnock FC, founded in 1869. Scotland is considered the "Home of Golf", and is well known for its many courses, including the Old Course that is synonymous with the game. Established in 1754, The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews also codified the rules of golf. As well as its world famous Highland Games, where several traditional events such as the McGlashan stones are now common in world strongman events, Scotland has also given the world curling, and shinty, a stick game related to Ireland's hurling, and similar to England's field hockey. Whilst stereotypically seen as an English game, Scottish cricket has always had a large following throughout the country. Scottish cricketScottish professional rugby clubs compete in the Celtic League, along with teams from Ireland and Wales. However, the country retains a national league for amateur and semi-pro clubs. Shinty is run by the Camanachd Association and is played primarily in its Highland heartland, but also in most universities and cities. Kingussie have the distinction of appearing in the Guinness Book of Records as the most successful sporting team of all time, having won the league for twenty years in a row.

Media

Scotland has distinct media from the rest of the UK. For example, it produces many national newspapers such as Daily Record (Scotland's leading tabloid), The Herald broadsheet, based in Glasgow, and The Scotsman in Edinburgh. The Herald, formerly known as the Glasgow Herald, changed its name to promote a national rather than a regional identity, while The Scotsman, which used to be a broadsheet, recently switched to tabloid format. Sunday newspapers include the tabloid Sunday Mail (published by Daily Record parent company Trinity Mirror) and the Sunday Post, while the Sunday Herald and Scotland on Sunday have associations with The Herald and The Scotsman respectively. Regional dailies include The Courier and Advertiser in Dundee in the east, and The Press and Journal serving Aberdeen and the north. Scotland has its own BBC services which include the national radio stations, BBC Radio Scotland and Gaelic language service, BBC Radio nan Gaidheal. There are also a number of BBC and independent local radio stations throughout the country. In addition to radio, BBC Scotland also runs two national television stations. Much of the output of BBC Scotland Television, such as news and current affairs programmes, and the Glasgow-based soap opera, River City, are intended for broadcast within Scotland, whilst others, such as drama and comedy programmes, aim at audiences throughout the UK and further afield. Sports coverage also differs, reflecting the fact that the country has its own football leagues, separate from those of England. Three independent television stations (Scottish TV, Grampian TV and ITV1 Border) also broadcast in Scotland. Although they previously had independent existences, Scottish TV (serving the Central Lowlands) and Grampian (serving the Highlands and Islands) now belong to the same company (The Scottish Media Group) and resemble each other closely, apart from local news coverage. English-based ITV1 Border has had a more complex position, as it serves communities on both sides of the border with England, as well as the Isle of Man, and it now has separate news programs for each side of the border. Most of the independent television output equates to that transmitted in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, with the exception of news and current affairs, sport, cultural and Gaelic language programming.

Other facets of Scottish culture

Isle of Man Scotland retains its own distinct sense of nationhood. Academic research consistently shows that people in Scotland feel Scottish, whilst not necessarily feeling the need to see that translated into the establishment of a fully-independent Scottish nation-state. Scotland also has its own unique family of languages and dialects, helping to foster a strong sense of "Scottish-ness". See Scots language and Scottish Gaelic language. An organisation called Iomairt Cholm Cille (http://www.colmcille.net) has been set up to support Gaelic-speaking communities in both Scotland and Ireland and to promote links between them. Scotland retains its own national church, separate from that of England. See Church of Scotland and the section on "Religion" below. These factors combine together to form a strong, readily identifiable Scottish civic culture.

Religion

The Church of Scotland (sometimes referred to as The Kirk) is the national church, but it is not subject to state control nor is it "established" in the same manner as the Church of England within England. It is, however, recognised as the national church by Act of Parliament - Church of Scotland Act 1921. The Church of Scotland differs from the Church of England in several key respects, most notably in terms of not having a prescriptive liturgy and also in that it has a Presbyterian rather than Episcopalian form of church governance. Presbyterian church government was guaranteed by the Act of Union in 1707. The Scots are proud of the fact that the Scottish Reformation took place at a grassroots level, unlike the English experience, where the reformation, at least in its first thrust under Henry VIII, was a politically motivated top-down reform. The Scottish Reformation, initiated in 1560 and led by John Knox, was Calvinist, and throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, the Church of Scotland maintained a strict theology and kept a tight control over the morality of the population. The Church had an overwhelming influence on the cultural development of Scotland in early modern times. Because Calvinism does not adhere to the Liturgical Year, for example, Christmas was not widely celebrated in Scotland until the mid-20th century. The intellectual nature of Calvinism contributed greatly to the predominance of Scottish thinkers in the age of Enlightenment (see Scottish Enlightenment), but the Church's distrust of the sensual is seen as the reason why Scotland contributed little to classical music and art before the 19th century. Since the mid-19th century, however, the Church of Scotland has developed into a generally tolerant and heterogenous church with an interest in ecumenism. A number of other Christian denominations exist in Scotland, foremost amongst them Roman Catholicism, which survived the reformation especially on islands like Uist and Barra despite the suppression of the 16th to late 18th centuries, and was strengthened in the 19th century by immigration from Ireland. It has now become the largest Christian denomination after the Church of Scotland, and is strongest in the West of Scotland (although roadside shrines can be seen in the South Isles of the Outer Hebrides, similar to those in Ireland). Much of Scotland (particularly the West Central Belt around Glasgow) has experienced problems caused by the religious divide between Presbyterians and Roman Catholics. Some Scots maintain that sectarianism is still deeply rooted in Scottish society. This problem has historically manifested itself in a number of ways, particularly in discrimination in employment and in football fanaticism. The problems associated with sectarianism in Scotland have diminished markedly in recent years, although some issues remain. The Scottish police have recently moved to restrict the number of Orange Order parades and the state funding of separate Roman Catholic primary and secondary schools remains a controversial issue. As well as the Church of Scotland there are various other Protestant churches, including the Scottish Episcopal Church, which forms a full part of the Anglican Communion, and the Free Church of Scotland, a Presbyterian off-shoot from the Church of Scotland adhering to a more conservative style of Calvinism. Islam is the largest non-Christian religion in Scotland, although its numbers remain small. There are also significant Jewish (though higher in past decades) and Sikh communities, especially in Glasgow (Nancy Morris is Scotland's first woman rabbi). Scotland has a high proportion of persons who regard themselves as belonging to 'no religion'. Indeed, this was the second most common response in the 2001 census.

Economy

Main article: Economy of Scotland Most Scottish industry and commerce is concentrated in a few large cities on the waterways of the central lowlands. Edinburgh, on the Firth of Forth, is a cultural centre, the capital of Scotland, and one of the top financial centres in Europe. Glasgow, one of the largest cities in the UK, lies on the River Clyde; it is Scotland's leading seaport and today is the fourth largest manufacturing centre in the UK, accounting for well over 60% of Scotland's manufactured exports, with particular strengths in shipbuilding, engineering, food and drink, printing, publishing, clothing and textiles as well as new growth sectors such as software development and biotechnology. The dominant sector of Glasgow's economy is the service sector industries such as finance and banking, public administration, education, healthcare, and tourism. Glasgow is one of Europe's top 20 financial centres and is home to many of Britain's leading businesses. Glasgow also has the UK's largest and most economically important commerce and retail district. Although heavy industry has declined, the high-technology Silicon Glen corridor has developed between Glasgow and Edinburgh. Tourism is also very important. The significance of coal, once Scotland's most important mineral resource, has declined. Oil, however, gained prominence in Scotland's economy during the 1970s, with the growth of North Sea oil extraction companies. Natural gas is also abundant in the North Sea fields. Aberdeen is the centre of the oil industry. Scotland is a net exporter of energy to the rest of the UK, with abundant electricity generation capacity. Other important industries are textile production (woollens, worsteds, silks, and linens), distilling, and fishing. Textiles, beer, and whisky, which are among Scotland's chief exports, are produced in many towns. Salmon are taken from the Tay and the Dee, and numerous coastal towns and villages are supported by fishing from the North Sea. Only about one quarter of the land is under cultivation (principally in cereals and vegetables), but sheep raising is important in the less arable mountainous regions. Because of the persistence of feudalism and the land enclosures of the 19th cent. (see History, below), the ownership of most land in Scotland is concentrated in relatively few hands (some 350 people own about half the land). In 2003, as a result, the Scottish Parliament passed a land reform act that empowered tenant farmers and communities to purchase land even if the landlord did not want to sell.

National symbols

- The Flag of Scotland dates from the 9th century making it one of the oldest flags in the world. It now forms part of the Union Flag, the national flag of the United Kingdom. However the Flag of Scotland, known as the Saltire or St Andrew's Cross can be found flying all over Scotland.
- The Royal Standard of Scotland, a banner showing the old royal arms of the Kings of Scotland is also frequently to be seen, particuarly at sporting events involving a Scottish team. Often called the lion rampant (after its chief heraldic device), it is the property of the Queen and its use by anybody else is technically illegal. The banner is flown from Holyrood Palace and Balmoral Castle when the Queen is not in residence.
- The unicorn is also used as a symbol of Scotland. The Royal Coat of Arms of Scotland, used prior to 1603 by the Kings of Scotland, incorporated a lion rampant shield supported by two unicorns. On the union of the crowns, the Arms were quartered with those of England and Ireland, and one unicorn was replaced by a lion (the supporters of England).
- The thistle, the national flower of Scotland, features in many Scottish symbols and logos, and UK currency. According to one common legend, a Danish attacker stepped on one at night, so alerting the defenders of a Scottish castle; hence it is called the "guardian thistle".
-

England
:For an explanation of often-confusing terms like England, (Great) Britain and United Kingdom see British Isles (terminology). England is a nation and the largest and most populous constituent country of the United Kingdom accounting for more than 83% of the total UK population. It occupies most of the southern two-thirds of the island of Great Britain and shares land borders with fellow home nations Scotland, to the north, and Wales, to the west. Elsewhere, it is bordered by the sea. England is named after the Angles, one of a number of Germanic tribes believed to have originated in Angeln in Northern Germany, who settled in England in the 5th and 6th centuries. It has not had a distinct political identity since 1707, when Great Britain was established as a unified political entity; however, it has a legal identity separate from those of Scotland and Northern Ireland, as part of the entity "England and Wales;". England's largest city, London, is also the capital of the United Kingdom.
History
Main article: History of England England has been inhabited for at least 500,000 years, although the repeated Ice Ages made much of Britain uninhabitable for extended periods until as recently as 20,000 years ago. Stone Age hunter-gatherers eventually gave way to farmers and permanent settlements, with a spectacular and sophisticated megalithic civilisation arising in western England some 4,000 years ago. It was replaced around 1,500 years later by Celtic tribes migrating from Western and continental Europe, mainly from France. These tribes were known collectively as "Britons", a name bestowed by Phoenician traders — an indication of how, even at this early date, the island was part of a Europe-wide trading network. The Britons were significant players in continental politics and supported their allies in Gaul militarily during the Gallic Wars with the Roman Republic. This prompted the Romans to invade and subdue the island, first with Julius Caesar's raid in 55 BC, and then the Emperor Claudius' conquest in the following century. The whole southern part of the island — roughly corresponding to modern day England and Wales — became a prosperous part of the Roman Empire. It was finally abandoned early in the 5th century when a weakening Empire pulled back its legions to defend borders on the Continent. Unaided by the Roman army, Roman Britannia could not long resist the Germanic tribes who arrived in the 5th and 6th centuries, enveloping the majority of modern day England in a new culture and language and pushing Romano-British rule back into modern-day Wales and western extremities of England, notably Cornwall and Cumbria. Others emigrated across the channel to modern-day Brittany, thus giving it its name and language (Breton). But many of the Romano-British remained in and were assimilated into the newly "English" areas. The invaders fell into three main groups: the Jutes, the Saxons, and the Angles. As they became more civilised, recognisable states formed and began to merge with one another. (The most well-known state of affairs being the Anglo-Saxon heptarchy.) From time to time throughout this period, one Anglo-Saxon king, recognised as the "Bretwalda" by other rulers, had effective control of all or most of the English; so it is impossible to identify the precise moment when the Kingdom of England was unified. In some sense, real unity came as a response to the Danish Viking incursions which occupied the eastern half of "England" in the 8th century. Egbert, King of Wessex (d. 839) is often regarded as the first king of all the English, although the title "King of England" was first adopted, two generations later, by Alfred the Great (ruled 871–899). The principal legacy left behind in those territories from which the language of the Britons were displaced is that of toponyms. Many of the place-names in England and to a lesser extent Scotland are derived from celtic British names, including London, Dumbarton, York, Dorchester, Dover and Colchester. Several place-name elements are thought to be wholly or partly Brythonic in origin, particularly bre-, bal-, and -dun for hills, carr for a high rocky place, coomb for a small deep valley. Until recently it has been believed that those areas settled by the Anglo-Saxons were uninhabited at the time or the Britons had fled before them. However, genetic studies show that the British were not pushed out to the Celtic fringes – many tribes remained in what was to become England (see C. Capelli et al. A Y chromosome census of the British Isles. Current Biology 13, 979–984, (2003)). Capelli's findings strengthen the research of Steven Bassett of the University of Birmingham; his work during the 1990s suggests that much of the West Midlands was only very lightly colonised with Anglian and Saxon settlements.

This royal throne of kings, this sceptred isle,
This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars,
This other Eden, demi-paradise,
This fortress built by Nature for herself
Against infection and the hand of war,
This happy breed of men, this little world,
This precious stone set in the silver sea,
Which serves it in the office of a wall
Or as a moat defensive to a house,
Against the envy of less happier lands,—
This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England.

William Shakespeare
Richard II (Act 2, Scene 1)

The English are great lovers of themselves, and of everything belonging to them; they think that there are no other men than themselves, and no other world but England; and whenever they see a handsome foreigner, they say that 'he looks like an Englishman', and that 'it is a great pity that he should not be an Englishmen'.

Venetian ambassador to England
Early 16th century
Charlotte Augusta Sneyd
Italian Relations of England (p. 20)

Richard II] Richard II] In 1066, William the Conqueror and the Normans conquered the existing Kingdom of England and instituted an Anglo-Norman administration and nobility who, retaining proto-French as their language for the next three hundred years, ruled as custodians over English commoners. Although the language and racial distinctions faded rapidly during the middle ages, the class system born in the Norman/Saxon divide persisted longer — arguably with traces lasting to the modern day. While Old English continued to be spoken by common folk, Norman feudal lords significantly influenced the language with French words and customs being adopted over the succeeding centuries evolving to a Romance-Germanic hybrid of Middle English widely spoken in Chaucer's time. England came repeatedly into conflict with Wales and Scotland, at the time an independent principality and an independent kingdom respectively, as its rulers sought to expand Norman power across the entire island of Britain. The conquest of Wales was achieved in the 13th century, when it was annexed to England and gradually came to be a part of that kingdom for most legal purposes, although in the modern era it is more usually thought of as a separate nation (fielding, for example, its own athletic teams). Norman power in Scotland waxed and waned over the years, with the Scots managing to maintain a varying degree of independence despite repeated wars with the English. Although it was on the whole only a moderately successful power in military terms, England became one of the wealthiest states in medieval Europe, due chiefly to its dominance in the lucrative wool market. The failure of English territorial ambitions in continental Europe prompted the kingdom's rulers to look further afield, creating the foundations of the mercantile and colonial network that was to become the British Empire. The turmoil of the Reformation embroiled England in religious wars with Europe's Catholic powers, notably Spain, but the kingdom preserved its independence as much through luck as through the skill of charismatic rulers such as Elizabeth I. Elizabeth's successor, James I was already king of Scotland (as James VI); and this personal union of the two crowns into the crown of Great Brittaine was followed a century later by the Act of Union 1707, which formally unified England, Scotland and Wales into the Kingdom of Great Britain. This later became the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (1801 to 1927) and then the modern state of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (1927 to present) For post-unification history, see history of the United Kingdom.
Politics
Main article: Politics of the United Kingdom, Government of England Since the promulgation of the 1284 Statute of Rhuddlan and the Laws in Wales Acts 1535-1542, Wales has shared a legal identity with England as the joint entity of England and Wales. The Act of Union with the Kingdom of Scotland in 1707 created the Kingdom of Great Britain, subsuming England, Wales and Scotland into a single political entity. Scotland, along with Northern Ireland, retain separate legal systems. The duchy of Cornwall also retains some unique rights. All of Great Britain has been ruled by the government of the United Kingdom since that date, although in 1999 the first elections to the newly created Scottish Parliament and National Assembly for Wales left England as the only part of the Union with no devolved assembly or parliament. As all legislation for England is passed by Parliament at Westminster there are some complaints about the ability of non-English Members of Parliament to influence purely English affairs. This apparent anomaly has been highlighted by both English and non-English politicians, often those opposed to devolution, and has become popularly known as the West Lothian question. Administratively, England is something of an anomaly within the UK. Unlike the other three nations, it has no local parliament or government and its administrative affairs are dealt with by a combination of the UK government, the UK parliament and a number of England-specific quangos, such as English Heritage. There are calls from some for a devolved English Parliament and from others for the dissolution of the UK and an independent England. The current Labour government favoured the establishment of regional administration, claiming that England was too large to be governed as a sub-state entity. A referendum on this issue in North East England on 4 November 2004 decisively rejected the proposal. Some criticised the English regional proposals for not decentralising enough, saying that they amounted not to devolution, but to little more than local government reorganisation, with no real power being removed from central government. The English regions would not even have had the limited powers of the Welsh Assembly, much less the tax-varying and legislative powers of the Scottish Parliament. Rather, power was simply re-allocated within the region, with little new resource allocation and no real prospects of Assemblies being able to change the pattern of regional aid. Responsibility for regional transport was added to the proposals late in the process. This was perhaps crucial in the North East, where resentment at the Barnett Formula, which delivers greater regional aid to adjacent Scotland, was a significant impetus for the North East devolution campaign. There has also been a campaign for a Cornish assembly along Welsh lines by groups such as Mebyon Kernow, which recently collected 50,000 signatures in support. Some eurosceptics believe that the establishment of English regions as administrative entities is designed to undermine the concept of English nationhood and more easily fit England into a European federal model. Conventionally the national capital of England is London, although technically it would be more exact to call London the capital of "England and Wales" given England's lack of a distinctive political identity separate from the Principality. Winchester served as the country's first national capital until some time in the late 11th century after the Norman Conquest. The City of London became England's commercial capital, while the City of Westminster (where the Royal court was located) became the political capital. These roles have, broadly speaking, been maintained to the present day.
Subdivisions
Main article: Subdivisions of England Historically, the highest level of local government in England was the county. These divisions had emerged from a range of units of old, pre-unification England, whether they were Kingdoms, such as Essex and Sussex; Duchies, such as Yorkshire, Cornwall and Lancashire or simply tracts of land given to some noble, as is the case with Berkshire. Until 1867, they were subdivided into smaller divisions called hundreds. These counties all still exist in, or near to, their original form as the traditional counties. In many places, however, they have been heavily modified or abolished outright as administrative counties. This came about due to a number of factors. The fact that the counties were so small meant, and still means, that there was no regional government able to coordinate an overarching plan for the area. This was especially true in the metropolitan areas surrounding the cities, as the county lines were usually drawn up before the industrial revolution and the mass urbanisation of England. The solution was the creation of large metropolitan counties centred on cities. These were later broken up, with several other counties, into unitary authorities, unifying the county and district/borough levels of government. London is a special case, and is the one region which currently has a representative authority as well as a directly elected mayor. The 32 London boroughs and the Corporation of London remain the local form of government in the city. Other than Greater London, the official regions are:
- North East England
- North West England
- Yorkshire and the Humber
- West Midlands
- East Midlands
- East of England
- South West England
- South East England Outside London the regions have very little power and are not accountable to elected representatives; regional authority is placed in the hands of unelected assemblies. If, as now seems unlikely, regions opt to replace these bodies with elected assemblies, local government in England will remain as variable and, some might say, as confusing as ever
Geography
Main articles: Geography of the United Kingdom, Geography of England Geography of England England comprises the central and southern two-thirds of the island of Great Britain, plus offshore islands of which the largest is the Isle of Wight. It is bordered to the north by Scotland and to the west by Wales. It is closer to continental Europe than any other part of Britain, divided from France only by a 38 km (24 statute mile or 21 nautical mile) sea gap. Most of England consists of rolling hills, but it is more mountainous in the north with a chain of low mountains, the Pennines, dividing east and west. The dividing line between terrain types is usually indicated by the Tees-Exe line. There is also an area of flat, low-lying marshland in the east, much of which has been drained for agricultural use. The list of England's largest cities is much debated because in British English the normal meaning of city is "a continuously built-up urban area"; these are hard to define and various other definitions are preferred by some people to boost the ranking of their own city. London is by far the largest English city. Manchester and Birmingham vie for second place. A number of other cities, mainly in the north of England, are of substantial size and influence. These include: Liverpool, Leeds, Newcastle, Nottingham, Bristol and Sheffield Using the standard U.S. city limits definition of a city the top six are: Birmingham, Leeds, Sheffield, Bradford, Liverpool and Manchester. Note that London is not on this list (Greater London is a region and the City of London is tiny), and that one of the two candidates for the status of England's "second city", Manchester, is down in sixth. In the UK, this method of ranking cities is generally used only by people whose own city is promoted by it. The Channel Tunnel, near Folkestone, links England to the European mainland. The English/French border is halfway along the tunnel. The largest harbour in England is at Poole, on the south-central coast. Internationally, it is the second largest harbour in the world, although this fact is disputed (See harbors for a list of other potential second largest harbours) The highest temperature ever recorded in England is 38.5 °C (101.3 °F) on August 10, 2003 in Kent. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/kent/3153532.stm]. The lowest temperature ever recorded in England is -26.1 °C (-15.0 °F) on January 10, 1982 at Newport in Shropshire. [http://www.metoffice.com/climate/uk/location/england/#temperature]
Major rivers
Shropshire.]]
- Thames
- Severn
- Trent
- Humber
- Yorkshire Ouse
- Tyne
- Mersey
- Dee
- Avon Main article: Waterways in the United Kingdom
Major Conurbations
:See main article: List of towns in England The largest cities in England are much debated but according to the urban area populations (continuous built up areas) these would be the 15 largest conurbations. (Population figures taken from 2001 census) #Greater London (8,278,251) #West Midlands (2,284,093) #Greater Manchester (2,244,931) #Leeds/Bradford (1,499,465) #Tyneside (879,996) #Liverpool (816,216) #Nottingham (666,358) #Sheffield (640,720) #Bristol (551,066) #Brighton/Worthing/Littlehampton (461,181) #Portsmouth (442,252) #Leicester (441,213) #Bournemouth/Poole (383,713) #Reading (369,804) #Teesside (365,323)
Economy
Main article: Economy of England
Demographics
Main articles: Demographics of England, Population of England England is both the most populous and the most ethnically diverse nation in the United Kingdom with around 49 million inhabitants, of which roughly a tenth are from non-White ethnic groups. It is one of the most densely populated countries in Europe, second only to the Netherlands. This population is made up of, and descended from, immigrants who have arrived over millennia. The principal waves of migration have been in c. 600 BC (Celts), the Roman period (garrison soldiers from throughout the Empire), 350–550 (Angles, Saxons, Jutes), 800–900 (Vikings, Danes), 1066 (Normans), 1650–1750 (European refugees and Huguenots), 1840–1850 (Irish), 1880–1940 (Irish, Jews), 1950— (Irish, Caribbeans, Africans, South Asians), 1985— (citizens of European Community member states especially Ireland, East Europeans, Iranians, Kurds, refugees). The general prosperity of England as the largest partner of the UK, has also made it a destination for economic migrants particularly from Ireland and Scotland. This segment of English homogeneous society continues to create a diverse and dynamic language that is widely used internationally. The other image of foreign ethnic components in England is still mostly seen as a legacy of the British Empire; especially the Commonwealth of Nations.
English identity
The simplest view is that an English person is someone who is from England and holds British nationality, regardless of his or her racial origin. However, inhabitants of England quite commonly refer to themselves as "British" rather than "English"; centuries of English dominance within the United Kingdom has created a situation where to be English is, as a linguist would put it, an "unmarked" state (i.e. a British person, institution, custom, city, etc. is assumed English unless specified otherwise). The English frequently include their neighbours in the general term "British" while the Scots and Welsh, proud of their separate identities, tend to be more forward about referring to themselves by one of those more specific terms. Although currently a part of England, a notable percentage of those living in Cornwall feel similarly, considering themselves Cornish first. One significant exception is in Northern Ireland, where the Unionist community tend to identify very strongly as "British" (Republicans living in the province are more likely to consider themselves "Irish"), and there is not a "Northern Ireland" or "Northern Irish" identity to the same extent as there is (e.g.) a Scottish one. A person, therefore, using the term "English" to describe him or herself (regardless of personal history) may be going out of his or her way to do so; hence he or she may also be seen (rightly or wrongly, and not necessarily pejoratively) as nationalistic. While Scottish, Welsh, Irish and Cornish patriotism are widely exhibited, specifically English patriotism has often been viewed with suspicion, and most English people feel more comfortable identifying themselves with Britain as a whole. However, this may be to avoid being seen as bullies by their neighbours. The extent to which specifically English patriotism is linked to a right-wing xenophobic agenda has also generated discomfort. The appropriation of English symbols by racist far-right organisations such as the National Front made many people uncomfortable with expressions of Englishness. In recent years, English identity has recently been a topic of debate in the national press, with many English people trying to "reclaim" the term and the flag from the far-right. See English nationalism. One notable exception to the above is in relation to sports, in particular Association football, Rugby football and to a lesser extent Cricket. Transient successes are often accompanied by a revival of the use of the "St George's Cross". While it has not yet replaced the "Union Flag" its use is on the increase. Many English people who have spent a lot of time overseas fall into the habit of referring to themselves as "English". It is the most recognisable designation by speakers of many languages, especially where their own language uses a similar word. Even in other English-speaking countries, people are often perplexed by concepts of "British" or the "United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland". All these distinctions are only possible because there is no "English citizenship" or legal definition of Englishness. Moreover, the hazy understanding many people have of the distinction between "England" and "Britain" compounds the confusion. If in doubt, refer to an "English" person as "British": this will always be correct. It may not be as precise as "English", but it will avoid offence in the event the person is actually from a different part of Britain.
Culture
Union Flag Main article: Culture of England
- English literature
- Sir Thomas Browne
- Geoffrey Chaucer
- John Milton
- William Shakespeare
- Jane Austen
- Mary Shelley
- Charles Dickens
- Thomas Hardy
- George Orwell
- J. R. R. Tolkien
- C. S. Lewis
- Douglas Adams
- List of national parks of England and Wales
- Food and Drink
- English folklore
- English art
- English school of painting
- Music of England
Languages
Music of England.]] As its name suggests, the English language, today spoken by hundreds of millions of people around the world, originated as the language of England, where it remains the principal tongue today (although not officially designated as such). An Indo-European language in Anglo-Frisian branch of the Germanic family, it is closely related to Scots and Frisian. As the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms merged into England, "Old English" emerged; some of its literature and poetry has survived. Used by aristocracy and commoners alike before the Norman Conquest (1066), English was displaced in cultured contexts under the new regime by the Norman French language of the new Anglo-French aristocracy. Its use was confined primarily to the lower social classes while official business was conducted in a mixture of Latin and French. Over the following centuries, however, English gradually came back into fashion among all classes and for all official business except certain traditional ceremonies. (Some survive to this day.) But Middle English, as it had by now become, showed many signs of French influence, both in vocabulary and spelling. During the Renaissance, many words were coined from Latin and Greek origins; and more recent years, Modern English has extended this custom, being always remarkable for its far-flung willingness to incorporate foreign-influenced words. The law does not recognise any language as being official, but English is the only language used in England for general official business. The other national languages of the UK (Welsh, Irish Gaelic and Scottish Gaelic) are confined to their respective nations, and only Welsh is treated by law as an equal to English (and then only for organisations which do business in Wales). The only non-Anglic native spoken language in England is the Cornish language, a Celtic language spoken in Cornwall, which became extinct in the 19th century but has been revived and is spoken in various degrees of fluency by around 3,500 people. This has no official status (unlike Welsh) and is not required for official use, but is nonetheless supported by national and local government under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. Cornwall County Council has produced [http://www.cornwall.gov.uk/cornish/strategy/english/engl01.htm a draft strategy] to develop these plans. There is, however, no programme as yet for public bodies to actively promote the language. Scots is spoken by some adjacent to the Anglo-Scottish Border. Most deaf people within England speak British sign language (BSL), a sign language native to Britain. The British Deaf Association estimates that 70,000 people throughout the UK speak BSL as their first or preferred language, but does not give statistics specific to England. Like Cornish, BSL has no official status, but has been granted a degree of recognition by the government. The BBC broadcasts several of its programmes with BSL interpreters. Different languages from around the world, especially from the former British Empire and the Commonwealth of Nations, have been brought to England by immigrants. Many of these are widely spoken within ethnic minority communities, including Punjabi, Hindi, Urdu, Bengali, Gujarati, Chinese and Vietnamese. These are often used by official bodies to communicate with the relevant sections of the community, particularly in big cities, but this occurs on an "as needed" basis rather than as the result of specific legislative ordinances. Other languages have also traditionally been spoken by minority populations in England, including Romany. Despite the relatively small size of the nation, there are a large number of distinct English regional accents. Those with particularly strong accents may not be easily understood elsewhere in the country.
Nomenclature
The country is named after the Angles, one of several Germanic tribes who settled the country in the 5th and 6th centuries. There are two distinct linguistic patterns for the name of the country. The majority of European languages use names akin to "England":
- "England" (Danish, German, Swedish, Norwegian)
- "Engeland" (Dutch)
- "Inglismaa" (Estonian)
- "Angleterre" (French)
- "Inghilterra" (Italian)
- "Inglaterra" (Spanish, Portuguese, Galician)
- "Anglia" (Hungarian, Polish, Romanian, Albanian)
- "Anglija" (Russian, Slovene, Lithuanian, Ukrainian)
- "Engleska" (Croatian, Serbian)
- "Αγγλία" ("Anglía") (Greek)
- "Englanti" (Finnish) The Celtic names are quite different:
- "Bro-Saoz" (Breton)
- "Pow Sows" (Cornish)
- "Sasana" (Irish)
- "Sasainn" (Scottish Gaelic)
- "Lloegr" (Welsh) — but "Saeson" for the inhabitants.
- "Sostyn" (Manx Gaelic) Except for Lloegr, which is an ancient geographic term, these names are all derived from the Saxons, another family of Germanic tribes which arrived at about the same time as the Angles. See: Wiktionary:England for a further list of non-English names for England. "England" is sometimes mistakenly used to refer to the entire United Kingdom, the island of Great Britain, or the British Isles. This may offend people from other parts of the UK. Frequently the English use the less-specific "Britain" or "the UK", even when "England" is technically correct and commonly also use "England" when "Britain" would be correct. Alternative names include:
- the slang "Blighty", from the Hindustani "bila yati" meaning "foreign"
- "Albion", an ancient name popularised by Pliny the Elder and Ptolemy in the 1st century. Supposedly referring to the white (Latin alba) cliffs of Dover, this term has also been interpreted as a relative of Alba, today the Scots Gaelic name for Scotland. Whatever its origins, "Albion" originally referred to the whole island of Great Britain and is still sometimes seen that way today — but is more often used for England.
- More poetically, England has been called "this sceptred isle...this other Eden" and "this green and pleasant land", quotations respectively from the poetry of William Shakespeare (in Richard II) and William Blake (And did those feet in ancient time). The inhabitants of England are the English. The slang terms sometimes used for them include "Sassenachs" (from the Scots Gaelic), "Limeys" (in reference to the citrus fruits carried aboard English sailing vessels to prevent scurvy) and "Pom/Pommy" (used in Australian English and New Zealand English), but these may be perceived as offensive. Also see alternative words for British.
Symbols and insignia
alternative words for British.]] The two traditional symbols of England are the St. George's cross (the English flag) and the Three Lions coat of arms (see above), both derived from the great Norman powers that formed the monarchy – the Cross of Aquitaine and the Lions of Anjou. The three lions were first definitely used by Richard I (Richard the Lionheart) in the late 12th century (although it is also possible that Henry I may have bestowed it on his son Henry before then). Historian Simon Schama has argued that the Three Lions are the true symbol of England because the English throne descended down the Angevin line. A red cross acted as a symbol for many Crusaders in the 12th and 13th centuries. It became associated with St George and England, along with other countries and cities (such as Georgia, Milan and the Republic of Genoa), which claimed him as their patron saint and used his cross as a banner. It remained in national use until 1707, when the Union Flag (which English and Scottish ships had used at sea since 1606) was adopted for all purposes to unite the whole of Great Britain under a common flag. The flag of England no longer has much of an official role, but it is widely flown by Church of England properties and at sporting events. (Paradoxically, the latter is a fairly recent development; until the late 20th century, it was commonplace for fans of English teams to wave the Union Flag, rather than the St George's Cross). The rose is widely recognised as the national flower of England and is used in a variety of contexts. Predominantly, this is a red rose (which also symbolises Lancashire), such as the badge of the English Rugby Union team. However, a white rose (which also symbolises Yorkshire) or a "tudor rose" (symbolising the end of the War of the Roses) may also be used on different occasions. The Three Lions badge performs a similar role for the English national football team and English national cricket team.
National anthems
Although England does not have an official anthem of its own, the following are widely regarded as English national hymns:
- "Jerusalem:" Words by William Blake, Music by Hubert Parry
- "I Vow to Thee, My Country": Words by Cecil Spring-Rice, Music by Gustav Holst
- "Land of Hope and Glory": Words by A C Benson, Music by Edward Elgar (although this refers to all of Great Britain, not only England)
- "Nimrod": Music by Edward Elgar "God Save The Queen" (the national anthem for the UK as a whole) is usually played for English sporting events (e.g. football matches), although "Land of Hope and Glory" has also been used as the English anthem for the Commonwealth Games. "Rule Britannia" despite being a song about Britain as a whole was often used for the English national football team when they play against another of the home nations but more recently "God Save The Queen" has been used by both the rugby and football teams. Many believe that English teams should use their own anthems, most popular of which is the use of "Jerusalem".
References

- [http://www.statistics.gov.uk Office of National Statistics]
See also

-
- English language
- English law
- English (people)
- List of monarchs of England – Kings of England family tree
- List of English people
- Angeln (region in northern Germany, presumably the origin of the Angles for whom England is named)
- UK topics
- List of not fully sovereign nations
- Education in England
References

External links

- [http://www.enjoyengland.com/ The official website of the English Tourist Board — Enjoy England]
- [http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/state/nations/ BBC Nations]: articles on England and her neighbours Category:Monarchies Category:European countries als:England zh-min-nan:England ko:잉글랜드 ms:England ja:イングランド simple:England th:แคว้นอังกฤษ

1639

Events

- January 14 - Connecticut's first constitution, the "Fundamental Orders," is adopted.
- January 23 - Francisco Maldonado de Silva, Peruvian Jewish poet, executed by burning at the stake
- March 13 - Harvard University is named for a clergyman named John Harvard.
- November 24 - Jeremiah Horrocks observes the transit of Venus.
- Charles I starts the first of the Bishops Wars against Scotland.
- The Casiquiare canal, a river forming a natural canal between the Amazon River and Orinoco River basins, is first encountered by Europeans.
- The Barbados House of Assembly meets for the first time.
- The first printing press in North America is started in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
- Russian Cossacks advance over Urals to Pacific, to Okhotsk.
- Montreal first settled.

Births

- February 6 - Daniel Georg Morhof, German writer and scholar (d. 1691)
- June 21 - Increase Mather, American minister (d. 1723)
- September 17 - Hans Herr, Swiss-born Mennonite bishop (d. 1725)
- September 29 - Lord William Russell, English politician (d. 1683)
- December 22 - Jean Racine, French dramatist (d. 1699)
- Yair Bacharach, German rabbi (d. 1702) See also :Category:1639 births.

Deaths

- January 20 - Mustafa I, Ottoman Sultan (b. 1592)
- January 24 - Georg Jenatsch, Swiss politician (b. 1596)
- May 21 - Tommaso Campanella, Italian theologian and poet (b. 1568)
- June 1 - Melchior Franck, German composer
- July 18 - Bernhard of Saxe-Weimar, German general (b. 1604)
- August 4 - Juan Ruiz de Alarcón, Mexican dramatist
- August 20 - Martin Opitz von Boberfeld, German poet (b. 1597)
- September 20 - Johannes Meursius, Dutch classical scholar (b. 1579)
- October 28 - Stefano Landi, Italian composer (b. 1587)
- November 7 - Thomas Arundell, 1st Baron Arundell of Wardour, English politician
- November 26 - John Spottiswoode, Scottish historian (b. 1565) See also :Category:1639 deaths. Category:1639 ko:1639년

Personal Rule

The Personal Rule refers to the period from 1629 to 1640, when King Charles I of England, Scotland and Ireland ruled without recourse to Parliament. He was entitled to do this under the Royal Prerogative, but his actions caused discontent among those who provided the ruling classes. Charles had already dissolved Parliament three times by 1628. After the murder of George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, who was in charge of Charles' foreign policy, Parliament began to criticise the king more harshly than before. As a result Charles declared that he would now rule alone. The term is indicative of the partisan nature of activities at the time, which would eventually result in the English Civil War.

Oliver Cromwell

, 1657.]] Oliver Cromwell (April 25, 1599 – September 3, 1658) was an English military leader and politician. After leading the overthrow of the British monarchy, he ruled England, Scotland, and Ireland as Lord Protector, from December 16, 1653 until his death, which is believed to have been by either malaria or poisoning. After his burial he was exhumed and hanged, drawn and quartered. Cromwell was born in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire. He studied at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, which was then a recently-founded college with a strong Puritan ethos. However, he left without taking a degree, probably due to the death of his father. At the outset of the English Civil War, Cromwell began his military career by raising a cavalry troop, known as the "Ironsides Cavalry", which became the basis of his New Model Army, as well as Cromwell's nickname, "Old Ironsides". Cromwell's leadership in the Battle of Marston Moor (in 1644) brought him to great prominence. As a leader of the Parliamentarian cause, and commander of the New Model Army, (informally known as the "Roundheads"), Cromwell defeated King Charles I, thus bringing to an end the monarchy's claims to absolute power. In 2003, Cromwell was ranked 10th in a popular BBC poll of "Great Britons."

Family

Oliver Cromwell descended from Catherine Cromwell (born circa 1483), an older sister of Tudor statesman Thomas Cromwell. Catherine was married to Morgan ap Williams, son of William ap Yevan and Joan Tudor. There is speculation that Joan was an illegitimate daughter of Jasper Tudor, 1st Duke of Bedford. Although Catherine married, her children kept her name; possibly to maintain their connection with their famous uncle. The family line continued through Richard Cromwell (c. 1500–1544), Henry Cromwell (c. 1524–January 6, 1603), then to Oliver's father Robert Cromwell, Esquire (c. 1560–1617), who married Elizabeth Steward or Stewart (1564–1654) on April 25, 1599, the day she delivered him a son. Another interesting feature of the Cromwell bloodline is that the mother's maiden name, as an alternative to the argument above, might have been kept as the surname for a different purpose: to disguise the male side of the family's heritage, instead of merely accentuating the female's side from Thomas Cromwell. This heritage goes through the Tudors, de Valois, and Wittelsbach—three royal dynasties of England, France, and the Holy Roman Empire, respectively. Cromwell's alleged paternal ancestor, Jasper Tudor was a younger brother of Edmund Tudor, 1st Earl of Richmond, uncle to his son Henry VII of England, and son of Owen Tudor and Catherine of Valois, daughter of Charles VI of France and Isabeau of Bavaria. However, the descent of Oliver Cromwell from Jasper is unverified; and is 'doubtful', in view of the tendency of Cromwell's supporters to 'fabricate' claims of his descent from the Royal line. This also occurred with the claim that Cromwell's ancestors on his mother's side could be traced back to a Scottish Stuart (from Stewart and originally Steward) prince shipwrecked on the Norfolk coast in 1406. This claim for a Scottish royal "pedigree" was unfounded, as Cromwell's Steward ancestors actually descended from the Skywards of Calais.

Member of Parliament

Having decided against following an uncle to Virginia, Cromwell instead became the Member of Parliament for Huntingdon in the Parliament of 1628–1629. His maiden speech was the defence of a radical democrat, who had argued in an unauthorised pamphlet in favour of "giving the vote to all men". Oliver was also prominent in defending the people of The Fens from wealthy landowners, who wanted to drive them off their land. Charles I ruled without a Parliament for the next eleven years (having dissolved Parliament), and alienated many people with his policies of raising extra-parliamentary taxes, and imposing his Catholicized vision of Protestantism on the Church of England. When King Charles was forced by shortage of funds to call a Parliament again in 1640, Oliver Cromwell was one of many MP's who bitterly opposed voting for any new taxes until the King agreed to govern with the consent of Parliament, on both civil and religious issues. The failure to solve this crisis led directly to civil war breaking out between English "Parliamentarians" (supporters of the power of Parliament) and British "Royalists" (supporters of the King). Cromwell was a passionate supporter of the Parliament, primarily on religious grounds. Although not an accomplished speaker, Cromwell was prominent in the Parliamentary cause from the outset. He was related to a significant number of members of Parliament by blood or marriage, and his views were influential. When spies identified him as an insider to the revolt against King Charles, and soldiers were sent to arrest him, Cromwell was one of several members absent. However, he did not become a leader of the Parliamentary cause until well into the civil war, when his military ability brought him to prominence. Although he was later involved in the King's overthrow and execution, Cromwell did not start the civil war as a radical republican; rather he did so with the intention of forcing Charles to reign with the consent of Parliament, and with a more consensual, Protestant, religious policy.

Religious beliefs

Cromwell's understanding of religion and politics were very closely intertwined. Cromwell was a committed "Puritan" Protestant, believing that salvation was open to all who obeyed the teachings of the Bible and acted according to their own (individual) conscience. He was passionately opposed to the Roman Catholic Church, which he saw as denying the primacy of the Bible in favour of Papal and Clerical authority, and which he blamed for tyranny and persecution of Protestants in Europe. For this reason, he was bitterly-opposed to Charles I's "reforms" of the Church of England, which introduced Catholic-style Bishops and Prayer Books, in place of Bible study. Cromwell's feelings of association between Catholicism and persecution were deepened with the Irish Rebellion of 1641. This rebellion was marked by massacres by Irish Catholics of English and Scottish Protestant settlers, which were wildly exaggerated in Puritan circles in Britain. This would later be one of the reasons why Cromwell acted so harshly in his later military campaign in Ireland. Cromwell was also opposed to the more radical religious groups on the Protestant side of the Civil Wars. Although he co-operated with Quakers and Presbyterians, Cromwell was opposed to their authoritarian imposition of their beliefs upon other Protestants. He became associated with the "Independent" faction, which argued for religious freedom for all Protestants in a post-war settlement. Finally, Cromwell was also a firm believer in "Providentialism" - the belief that God was actively directing the affairs of the world, through the actions of 'chosen people' (whom God had "provided" for such purposes). Cromwell believed, during the Civil Wars, that he was one of these people, and he interpreted victories as indications of God's approval of his actions, and defeats as signs that God was directing him in another direction. The Oxford historian Christopher Hill has written a semi-popular account of his influential studies in this area in 'God's Englishman' (Penguin, 1970)

Military Commander

Christopher Hill Cromwell's influence as a military commander and politician during the English Civil War dramatically altered the military and the political landscape of the British Isles. Having joined the Parliamentary Army with no military experience at the age of 43, he recruited a cavalry unit, and gained experience and victories in a succession of battles in East Anglia. Cromwell famously recruited his officers based upon merit rather than on the basis of noble birth, saying: "I would rather have a plain russet-coated captain who knows what he fights for and loves what he knows than that which you call a gentleman and is nothing else". As a result, the New Model Army under Cromwell's command became a centre for political radicals like the "Levellers", and a myriad of radical religious sects like the "Fifth Monarchists". Cromwell had no formal training in military tactics, but had an instinctive gift for command. He succeeded on several occasions in outmanouevring Prince Rupert, who was a veteran of European warfare. Cromwell's troops came to respect his bravery, and his concern for their well-being. Promoted to General in charge of cavalry for the New Model Army, Cromwell trained his men to rapidly regroup after an attack; tactics he first employed with great success at the Battle of Naseby, and which showed a very high level of discipline and motivation on the part of his troops. With successive military victories he gained political power, until he became the leading politician of the time. By the end of the first civil war in 1646, King Charles I was a prisoner of the Parliament. Cromwell, however, commanded the army that had won this victory and as a result, was in a position to dictate the future of England. Cromwell showed in the English Civil Wars that he was a brave and daring cavalry commander. However, in the years to come, he would also be recognised as an exceptional commander of entire armies. His successful conquests of Ireland and Scotland showed a great mastery of organising supplies and logistics for protracted campaigns in hostile territory.

Execution of the king

The Parliamentarians, including Cromwell, hoped to reach a compromise settlement with Charles I. However, Charles would not accept a solution at odds with his own "Divine right" of kingship doctrines. The so-called "second civil war", which broke out in 1648 after Charles I's escape from prison, suggested to Cromwell that no compromise with the King would be possible. After being recaptured, Charles was tried for treason. Cromwell came under pressure from the radicals among his own officers to execute the King, whom they termed, "Charles Stuart, that man of blood." In January 1649, when the Rump Parliament at Whitehall voted on whether to execute Charles I, Cromwell's troops broke into the Parliament's chambers and only permitted the regicides, those in favour of Charles' execution, to vote on the matter. The death warrant was signed by 59 members of Parliament, and Charles I was executed that January. Cromwell did not have long to dwell on the future form of government in England, however, as he immediately left the country to crush the remaining Royalist strongholds in Ireland and Scotland. regicide

Ireland and Scotland

See also: Cromwellian conquest of Ireland, Irish Confederate Wars, and Scottish Civil War. Cromwell's actions made him very unpopular in Scotland and Ireland which, as previously semi-independent nations, were effectively conquered by English forces during the civil wars. In particular, Cromwell's brutal suppression of the Royalists in Ireland, during 1649, still has a strong resonance for many Irish people. The most enduring symbol of this brutality is the siege of Drogheda in September 1649. The massacre of nearly 3,500 people in Drogheda after its capture — comprising around 2,700 Royalist soldiers and all the men in the town carrying arms, including some civilians, prisoners, and Catholic priests — is one of the historical memories that has fuelled Irish-English and Catholic-Protestant strife for over three centuries. Ireland The extent of Cromwell's intentions has been strongly debated. For example, it is clear that Cromwell saw the Irish in general as enemies - he justified his sack of Drogheda as revenge for the massacres of Protestant settlers in Ulster in the Irish Rebellion of 1641, calling the massacre, "The righteous judgement of God on these barbarous wretches, who have imbued their hands with so much innocent blood"- and the records of many churches such as Kilkenny Cathedral accuse Cromwell's army of having defaced and desecrated the churches and having stabled the horses in them. On the other hand, it is also clear that on entering Ireland, Cromwell demanded that no supplies were to be seized from the inhabitants, and that everything should be fairly purchased. It has been claimed that his actual orders at Drogheda followed military protocol of the day, where a town or garrison was first given the option to surrender and receive just treatment and the protection of the invading force. The refusal to do this, even after the walls had been breached, meant that Cromwell's orders to show no mercy in the treatment of men-of-arms was made inevitable by the standards of the day. This view has been disputed by historians . Cromwell's men committed another infamous massacre at Wexford, when they broke into the town during surrender negotiations, and killed over 2000 Irish soldiers and civilians. These two atrocities, while horrifying in their own right, were not exceptional in the war in Ireland since its start in 1641, but are well remembered, even today; because of a concerted propaganda campaign by the Royalists, which portrayed Cromwell as a monster, who indiscriminately slaughtered civilians wherever he went. However, Cromwell himself never accepted that he was responsible for the killing of civilians in Ireland, claiming that he had acted harshly, but only against those "in arms". In fact, the worst atrocities committed in that country, such as mass evictions, killings and deportation for slave labour to Barbados, were carried out by Cromwell's subordinates after he had left for England. In the wake of the Cromwellian conquest, all Catholic-owned land was confiscated in the Act for the Settlement of Ireland 1652, the "practice" of Roman Catholicism was banned, and bounties were offered for priests. Regardless, Ireland remained a Roman Catholic nation, as most Irish Catholics refused to abandon their faith. No matter his intentions, Cromwell was not alone in his apparent truculency towards the Irish. Long seen as "savages" and inferior by the English (and they were Catholic to the British Protestants as well) the Parliamentarian side in particular nursed a hatred towards the Irish during the civil wars. The Royalists were less hostile and ultimately allied themselves with the Irish Confederates - which discredited them in the eyes of many English and Scottish Protestants. The massacres in Ulster during the Irish Rebellion of 1641 claimed roughly 4,000 lives, not the "180,000" that was reported to the British public. The incident was used as effective propaganda to drum up anti-Irish and anti-Royalist sentiment, and it is evident Cromwell believed it. Scotland Cromwell also invaded Scotland in 1650-1651, after the Scots had crowned Charles I's son as "Charles II" and when they tried to re-impose the monarchy upon England. Cromwell had been prepared to tolerate an independent Scotland, but had to react after the Scots invaded England. Cromwell, much less hostile to Scottish Presbyterians than to Irish Catholics, saw them as, "His [God's] people, though deceived". Nevertheless, he acted with ruthlessness in Scotland. Despite being outnumbered, his veteran troops smashed Scottish armies at the Dunbar and the Worcester, and occupied the country. Cromwell treated very badly the thousands of prisoners of war he took in this campaign; allowing thousands of them to die of disease, and deporting others to penal colonies in Barbados. Cromwell's men, under George Monck viciously sacked the town of Dundee, in the manner of Drogheda. During the Commonwealth, Scotland was ruled from England, and was kept under military occupation; with a line of fortifications sealing off the Highlands from the rest of the country. 'Presbyterianism' was allowed to be practised as before, but the Kirk did not have the backing of the civil courts to impose its rulings, as previously. In both Scotland and Ireland, Cromwell is remembered as a "remorseless and ruthless" enemy. However, the reason for the peculiar bitterness that the Irish especially held for Cromwell's memory, has as much to do with his mass-transfer of Catholic-owned property into the hands of his soldiers, as with his wartime actions.

Political rule

Kirk

In the wake of the Army's 1648 recapture of the King, the monarchy was abolished; and between 1649 and 1653 the country became nominally a "republic", a rarity in Europe at that time. The republic was known as the Commonwealth of England. However, from all accounts, Cromwell actually ruled in practice as a military dictator. Many of Cromwell's actions upon gaining power were decried by some commentators as "harsh, unwise, and tyrannical". He was often ruthless in putting down the mutinies which occurred within his own army towards the end of the war (which were sometimes prompted by Parliament's failure to pay the troops). Cromwell showed little sympathy for the Levellers, an 'egalitarian' movement which had contributed greatly to Parliament's cause. (The Leveller point of view had been strongly represented in the Putney Debates, held between the various factions of the Army in 1647, just prior to the King's escape. Cromwell was not prepared to countenance a radical democracy, but as events were to show, could not engineer a stable oligarchic Parliamentary republic, either. With the king gone (and with him their common cause), Cromwell's unanimous backing dissolved, and the various factions in Parliament became engaged in infighting. In a repeat of the actions the former king had taken that had led to civil war, Cromwell eventually dismissed the republican Rump Parliament in 1653, and instead took personal control; effectively, as military dictator. Cromwell's power was buttressed by his continuing popularity among the army, which he had built up during the civil wars. Cromwell's foreign policy led him into the First Anglo-Dutch War in 1652, against the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands, eventually won by Admiral Robert Blake in 1654.1654 Cromwell's absolute insistence upon religious freedom, for all except Roman Catholics, led to his encouraging Jews to return to England, 350 years after their "banishment" by Edward I. In 1657, Cromwell was offered the crown by a re-constituted Parliament, presenting him with a dilemma, since he had been 'instrumental' in abolishing the monarchy. After six weeks of deliberation, he rejected the offer. Instead, he was ceremonially installed as "Lord Protector" at Westminster Abbey, sitting upon the former king's throne. The event was practically a coronation, and made him "king in all but name". But most notably, the office of Lord Protector was still not to be hereditary. The written constitution even gave him the right to issue noble titles, a device which he soon put to use in much the same fashion as had the former kings. (A history of the titles is given in Restoration).

Death and posthumous execution

Cromwell suffered from malaria and from "stone", a common term for urinary/kidney infections. Yet, he was in generally-good health. He was struck by a sudden bout of 'malaria', followed directly by an attack of urinary/kidney symptoms. Although weakened, he was optimistic about the future, as were his attendants. A Venetian diplomat, also a physician, was visiting at the time and tracked Cromwell's final illness. It was his opinion that The Lord Protector's personal physicians were mismanaging his health; leading to a rapid decline and death. Within two years of Cromwell's death from malaria on September 3, 1658, Parliament restored Charles II as king, as Cromwell's son Richard Cromwell had proved "an unworthy successor". In 1661, Oliver Cromwell's body was exhumed from Westminster Abbey, and was subjected to the ritual of a posthumous execution – on January 30, the same date that Charles I had been executed. He was in fact hanged, drawn and quartered. At the end, his body was thrown into a pit. His severed head was displayed on a pole outside Westminster Abbey until 1685. Since then, it changed hands several times, before eventually being buried in the grounds of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, in 1960.

Commemoration

Despite his treatment upon the Restoration, and an awful reputation in Ireland that lingers to this day, in some sections of British society, he has gained esteem over the years. As one of British history's 'most notable parliamentarians', his statue outside the Palace of Westminster is understandable, despite the fact that many of his actions are officially regarded as 'treasonous'. He also has a particular following among Protestant groups; and has retained popularity in Cambridgeshire, where he was known as "Lord of The Fens". In Cambridge, he is commemorated in an unusual fashion: a painted glass window of Cromwell exists in the Emmanuel United Reformed Church, and in St Ives, there is a statue of Cromwell in the town centre. His broader popularity today is evidenced by his ranking as 10th in the BBC poll of "Great Britons."

Quotes

- "Let us restore the king to his throne, and let the king in future agree to govern with the consent of Parliament. Let us restore the old church, with its bishops, since that is what most of the people want; but since the Puritans and Separatists and Baptists have served us well in the war, let us not persecute them anymore but let them worship as they like, outside of the established church. And so let us have peace and liberty."
- Oliver Cromwell was the first to coin the phrase "warts and all." Though he did not actually say "warts and all", the phrase comes from a famous conversation that he made to the artist (Lely) that was painting his portrait after he became Lord Protector. Cromwell was surprised to see that his rough and undesireable features were glossed over making him look more attractive than he actually was. The quote is as follows: "Mr Lely, I desire you would use all your skill to paint your picture truly like me, and not flatter me at all; but remark all these roughness, pimples, warts, and everything as you see me. Otherwise, I will never pay a farthing for it."
- "I wish to meddle with no man's conscience, by if by liberty of conscience you mean liberty to exercise the Mass, I think it best to deal in plain speaking, that will not be allowed of" To the Irish Catholic defenders of New Ross in 1649, while negotiating its surrender.

Miscellaneous

Cromwell was (likely in absence) called Copper Nose, for a brownish tinge on his nose. In 1989, Monty Python wrote a song called "Oliver Cromwell", which told the entire career of Cromwell to the tune of Frederic Chopin's Polonaise Op.53 in A flat major. It is available on their compilation album Monty Python Sings. The Elvis Costello song Oliver's Army is a named after Cromwell. The Pogues song "Young Ned of the Hill" features the chorus: "A curse upon you Oliver Cromwell, You who raped our Motherland, I hope you're rotting down in hell, For the horrors that you sent, To our misfortunate forefathers, Whom you robbed of their birthright, To hell or Connaught may you burn in hell tonight." Morrissey mentions Cromwell in his Song "Irish Blood, English Heart" : "I've been dreaming of a time when, The English are sick to death of Labour, And Tories, And spit upon the name Oliver Cromwell, And denounce this royal line that still salute him, And will salute him forever" The Flogging Molly song "Tabacco Island" is about the Irish fleeing their homeland to escape Cromwell.

Footnotes

- Tom Reilly - Cromwell: An Honourable Enemy - ISBN 0863222501
- [http://www.historyireland.com/resources/reviews/review1.html History Ireland (journal)]

References

External links

- [http://www.olivercromwell.org/ The Cromwell Association]
- [http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/state/monarchs_leaders/cromwell_01.shtml Cromwell Biography] at the BBC
- [http://www.britannia.com/history/monarchs/mon48.html Cromwell biography] at Britannia.com
- [http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/macauley-cromwell.html Cromwell biography] at Internet Modern History Source Book
- [http://www.british-civil-wars.co.uk/biog/oliver-cromwell.htm Cromwell biography] at British Civil Wars
- [http://www.tudorplace.com.ar/CROMWELL.htm The Cromwell family]
- [http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~pmcbride/rfc/lodh1rc.htm Page illustrating his descent from Henry I of England]
- [http://www.victorianweb.org/history/Cromwell.html Brief biography] at the Victoria Web Cromwell, Oliver Cromwell, Oliver Cromwell, Oliver Cromwell, Oliver Cromwell, Oliver Cromwell, Oliver Cromwell, Oliver Cromwell, Oliver Cromwell, Oliver Cromwell, Oliver ko:올리버 크롬웰 ja:オリバー・クロムウェル

Britain

:This article deals with the history of the word Britain. For clarification of terminology and an overview of articles about Britain and Ireland see British Isles (terminology). The word Britain is an informal term used to refer to
- the island of Great Britain which consists of the nations of England, Scotland and Wales.
- the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland or UK,
- sometimes the Roman province called "Britain" or "Britannia" The word British generally means belonging to or associated with Britain in one of the first two senses above (i.e. the United Kingdom or the island of Great Britain). However, the term has a range of related usages, as described in this article. Etymologically, these words are closely related to Brittany, the name of the western French peninsula, and its adjective Breton.

Earliest attested references

- Pretaniké; Pretanikai nesoi (Pretanic isles) - 325 BC
- Britannia - 55 BC (Julius Caesar, Roman invasion of Britain)
- Breten - 855 (Old English Chronicle, introduction)
- Brittisc - 855 (OED)
- Grate Briteigne - 1548 (OED)
- British isles - 1550 (in Latin; map of Sebastian Munster cited in British Isles article)

Etymology

The etymology of the name Britain is thought to derive from a Celtic word, Pritani, "painted people/men", a reference to the inhabitants of the islands' use of body-paint and tattoos. If this is true, there is an interesting parallel with the name Pict, connected with a Latin word of the same meaning. The modern Welsh name for Britain is Prydain. The Q-Celtic form was Cruithin, showing that the Common Celtic singular form was qr[ui]tanos. The root is presumably that of the modern Gaelic/Irish word cruth 'shape, form'. It has also been postulated that Britain may derive from the Celtic goddess Brigid; the form of the word, however, is against this postulation. In 325 BC the Greek explorer Pytheas of Massalia visited a group of islands which he called Pretaniké, the principal ones being Albionon (Albion) and Ierne (Erin). The records of this visit date from much more recent times, so there is room for these details to be disputed, but it does seem to attest pre-Roman use of the name by Celtic-speaking inhabitants of the islands - or the names used by the Phoenecians Pytheas went with. The Roman geographer Ptolemy called the larger island Megale Brettania (Great Britain), and the smaller island Micra Bretannia (Little Britain).

Britain and Brittany

The original reference seems to have been to the territory in which the Brythonic languages were spoken, which more or less coincided with the Roman province of Britannia, an area equivalent to modern England, Wales and southern Scotland. In the Early Middle Ages speakers of a Brythonic language which later evolved into Breton migrated from Cornwall to Armorica, Western France, possibly because of pressure from Saxon invasions. This is why different forms of the same name apply to insular Britain and continental Brittany. In French the similarity is even more obvious: Bretagne and Grande Bretagne. Geoffrey of Monmouth used the names Britannia minor to refer to the Armorican region and Britannia major for the island. The element great in the term Great Britain thus simply means large, to make the distinction from Brittany.

Historical evolution of the term Britain

The kingdoms established on the island of Great Britain were perceived to be dominant over the whole archipelago, which thus came to be known as the British Isles. During the reign of Queen Elizabeth I of England, the queen's astrologer and alchemist, John Dee, wrote mystical volumes predicting a British Empire and using the terms Great Britain and Britannia. After Elizabeth's death in 1603 the kingdoms shared one King, James VI of Scotland and I of England. On 20 October 1604 he proclaimed himself "King of Great Brittaine" (thus including Wales and also avoiding the cumbersome title "King of England and Scotland"). This title was eventually adopted formally in 1707 when the Kingdom of Great Britain was formed. Politically, then, British has been used to described someone or something from the United Kingdom, in its various forms, since 1707. Briton or Brit are also used colloquially in this form, though the use of Briton here is incorrect. Since its formation, the kingdom was enlarged in 1801 by the addition of the island of Ireland - already ruled by the British monarchy - to become the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and was then reduced in 1922 by the independence of the Irish Free State, now the Republic of Ireland. The name of the kingdom changed accordingly, in 1927 becoming The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. British was also used to describe members of nations that formed part of the British Empire. This use now, however, could be seen as justifying the colonial era, even if only applied historically.

Modern use of the term 'British'

The modern use of the term 'British' is as an adjective to describe someone or something from the United Kingdom. It is officially used as the term to describe the nationality of a citizen of the United Kingdom. Irish Nationalists may reject this term as offensive, as it is used to describe Irish people in Northern Ireland. Many people from England, Scotland and Wales also dislike the term, preferring to define themselves as natives of their own particular country. It is also frequently used to describe residents of the United Kingdom's current colonies. This may still offend some people, though since the British Overseas Territories Act 2002 all residents of the United Kingdom's remaining colonies have been eligible for British citizenship, making the term more apt. British occurs in the legal term British Islands . This was coined to describe all of the islands of the British Isles, exlcuding those that form part of the Republic of Ireland, when they act together as a political whole. Geographically, the term can be used in various ways:
- To describe someone from the island of Great Britain
- In the term British Isles, the traditional term for the entire archipelago of islands that lie off the north west coast of France, of which Great Britain and Ireland are the two biggest. Note that this is not intended to imply that all of these islands are part of the United Kingdom, for many of them are part of the Republic of Ireland. However, confusion caused by this term can lead to offense.
- The term has historically been used to describe someone or something from the British Isles. Due to the above mentioned potential for offense, this rarely happens today. For example the British Lions a rugby team which draws players from the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland has been renamed to the British and Irish Lions.
- Sometimes British applies to an area or territory currently or formerly governed by or a dependent territory of the United Kingdom, for example the British Virgin Islands, the British Indian Ocean Territory, or British Columbia which is now a province of Canada.

Brutus of Troy

In keeping with the mediaeval penchant for etymologising country names in terms of eponomous heroes, English historians of the late mediaeval and early modern periods charted the history of the nation from Brutus of Troy, supposedly a hero of the Trojan war who founded Britain just as Aeneaus' descendant Romulus founded Rome, Frankus France, and so forth. The life of Brutus, anglicised as Brute, was recorded in the literary tradition of the Prose Brute. This was long accepted as the etymology of Britain.

Sources and further reading

- A History of Britain: At the Edge of the World, 3000 BC - 1603 AD by Simon Schama, BBC/Miramax, 2000 ISBN 0786866756
- A History of Britain, Volume 2: The Wars of the British 1603-1776 by Simon Schama, BBC/Miramax, 2001 ISBN 0786866756
- A History of Britain - The Complete Collection on DVD by Simon Schama, BBC 2002
- The Isles, A History by Norman Davies, Oxford University Press, 1999, ISBN 0195134427
- Shortened History of England by G. M. Trevelyan Penguin Books ISBN 0140233237
- Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English by Eric Partridge, Routledge & Kegan Paul, London, 1966

External links

- [http://www.british-history.ac.uk/ British History Online] Category:British Isles Category:History of Britain Category:Europe simple:Britain

Fronde

:For the French feminist newspaper, see La Fronde. The Fronde (1648–1653) was a civil war in France, followed by the Franco-Spanish War (1653–1659). The word fronde means sling and referred to the pelting of windows (belonging to supporters of Cardinal Mazarin), with stones, by Paris mobs. The original goal of the "revolutionaries" was to limit the king's power and discuss various grievances; however, the movement soon degenerated into factions, some of which were attempting to overthrow Mazarin and reverse the policies of Cardinal de Richelieu. When Louis XIV became king in 1643, he was only a child, and though Richelieu had died the year before, his policies continued to dictate French policy, under his successor Cardinal Jules Mazarin. It is probable that Louis's later insistence on absolutist rule and depriving the high nobility of actual power was a result of these events in his childhood. The term frondeur was later used to refer to anyone who suggested that the power of the king should be limited, and has now passed into normal French usage to refer to anyone who will show insubordination or engage in criticism of the powers in place.

The First Fronde (1648–1649)

In May 1648 a tax levied on judicial officers of the Parlement of Paris was met by that body, not merely with a refusal to pay, but with a condemnation of earlier financial edicts, and even with a demand for the acceptance of a scheme of constitutional reforms framed by a committee of the parlement. This charter was somewhat influenced by contemporary events in England. But there is no real likeness between the two revolutions, the French parlement being no more representative of the people than the Inns of Court were in England. The military record of the first Fronde (the Fronde Parlementaire) is almost blank. In August 1648, strengthened by the news of the Prince of Condé's victory at Lens, Mazarin suddenly arrested the leaders of the parliament, whereupon Paris broke into insurrection and barricaded the streets. The court, having no army at its immediate disposal, had to release the prisoners and to promise reforms, and fled from Paris on the night of October 22. But the signing of the peace of Westphalia set free Condé's army, and by January 1649 it was besieging Paris. The peace of Rueil was signed in March, after little blood had been shed. The Parisians, though still and always anti-cardinalist, refused to ask for Spanish aid, as proposed by their princely and noble adherents, and having no prospect of military success without such aid, submitted and received concessions.

The Second Fronde (1650–1653)

Thenceforward the Fronde becomes a story of sordid intrigues and half-hearted warfare, losing all trace of its first constitutional phase. The leaders were discontented princes and nobles: Gaston of Orleans (the king's uncle); the great Louis II, Prince of Condé and his brother Armand, Prince of Conti; Frédéric, the Duke of Bouillon, and his brother Henri, Viscount of Turenne. To these must be added Gaston's daughter, Mademoiselle de Montpensier (La grande Mademoiselle); Condé's sister, Madame de Longueville; Madame de Chevreuse; and the astute intriguer Paul de Gondi, the future Cardinal de Retz. The military operations fell into the hands of war-experienced mercenaries, led by two great, and many second-rate, generals, and of nobles to whom war was a polite pastime. The feelings of the people at large were not enlisted from either side.

January 1650 – December 1651

The peace of Rueil lasted until the end of 1649. The princes, received at court once more, renewed their intrigues against Mazarin. On January 14, 1650, Cardinal Mazarin, having come to an understanding with Monsieur Gondi and Madame de Chevreuse, suddenly arrested Condé, Conti and Longueville. The war which followed this coup is called the "Princes' Fronde." This time it was Turenne, before and afterwards the most loyal soldier of his day, who headed the armed rebellion. Listening to the promptings of Madame de Longueville, he resolved to rescue her brother Condé, his old comrade of Freiburg and the Nördlingen. It was with Spanish assistance that he hoped to do so; and a powerful Spanish army assembled in Artois under the archduke Leopold Wilhelm, governor-general of the Spanish Netherlands. But the peasants of the countryside rose against the invaders; the royal army in Champagne was in the capable hands of Caesar de Choiseul, comte du Plessis-Praslin, who counted fifty-two years of age and thirty-six of war experience; and the little fortress of Guise successfully resisted the archduke's attack. However, Mazarin at this point drew upon Plessis-Praslin's army for reinforcements to be sent to subdue the rebellion in the south, and the royal general had to retire. Then archduke Leopold Wilhelm decided that he had spent enough of the king of Spain's money and men in the French quarrel. His regular army withdrew into winter quarters, and left Turenne to deliver the princes with a motley host of Frondeurs and Lorrainers. Plessis-Praslin by force and bribery secured the surrender of Rethel on December 13, 1650, and Turenne, who had advanced to relieve the place, fell back hurriedly. But he was a terrible opponent, and Plessis-Praslin and Mazarin himself, who accompanied the army, had many misgivings as to the result of a lost battle. The marshal chose nevertheless to force Turenne to a decision, and the battle of Blanc-Champ (near Somme-Py) or Rethel was the consequence. Both sides were at a standstill in strong positions, Plessis-Praslin doubtful of the trustworthiness of his cavalry, Turenne too weak to attack, when a dispute for precedence arose between the Gardes françaises and the Picardie regiment. The royal infantry had to be rearranged in order of regimental seniority, and Turenne, seeing and desiring to profit by the attendant disorder, came out of his stronghold and attacked with the greatest vigor. The battle (December 15, 1650) was severe and for a time doubtful, but Turenne's Frondeurs gave way in the end, and his army, as an army, ceased to exist. Turenne himself, undeceived as to the part he was playing in the drama, asked and received the young king's pardon, and meantime the court, with the maison du roi and other loyal troops, had subdued the minor risings without difficulty (March-April 1651). Condé, Conti and Longueville were released, and by April 1651 the rebellion had everywhere collapsed. Then followed a few months of hollow peace and the court returned to Paris. Mazarin, an object of hatred to all the princes, had already retired into exile. His absence left the field free for mutual jealousies, and for the remainder of the year anarchy reigned in France.

December 1651 – February 1653

In December 1651 Cardinal Mazarin returned to France with a small army. The war began again, and this time Turenne and Condé were pitted against one another. After this campaign, as we shall see, the civil war ceased, but in the several other campaigns of the Franco-Spanish War that followed, the two great soldiers were opposed to one another, Turenne as the defender of France, Condé as a Spanish invader. Their personalities alone give threads of continuity to these seven years of wearisome maneuvers, sieges and combats. The début of the new Frondeurs took place in Guyenne (February-March 1652), while their Spanish ally, the archduke Leopold Wilhelm, captured various northern fortresses. On the Loire, where the centre of gravity was soon transferred, the Frondeurs were commanded by intriguers and quarrelsome lords, until Condé's arrival from Guyenne. His bold leadership made itself felt in the Bléneau (April 7, 1652), in which a portion of the royal army was destroyed; but fresh troops came up to oppose him. From the skillful dispositions made by his opponents, Condé felt the presence of Turenne and broke off the action. The royal army did likewise. Condé invited the commander of Turenne's rearguard to supper, chaffed him unmercifully for allowing the prince's men to surprise him in the morning, and by way of farewell remarked to his guest, "Quel dommage que des braves gens comme nous se coupent la gorge pour un faquin" (It's too bad decent people like us are cutting our throats for a scoundrel) -- an incident and a remark that thoroughly justified the iron-handed absolutism of Louis XIV. There was no hope for France while tournaments, on a large scale and at the public's expense, were fashionable amongst the grands seigneurs. After Bléneau both armies marched to Paris to negotiate with the parlement, de Retz and Mlle de Montpensier, while the archduke took more fortresses in Flanders, and Charles, duke of Lorraine, with an army of plundering mercenaries, marched through Champagne to join Condé. As to the latter, Turenne manoeuvred past Condé and planted himself in front of the mercenaries, and their leader, not wishing to expend his men against the old French regiments, consented to depart with a money payment and the promise of two tiny Lorraine fortresses. A few more maneuvers, and the royal army was able to hem in the Frondeurs in the Faubourg St. Antoine (July 2, 1652) with their backs to the closed gates of Paris. The royalists attacked all along the line and won a signal victory in spite of the knightly prowess of the prince and his great lords, but at the critical moment Gaston's daughter persuaded the Parisians to open the gates and to admit Condé's army. She herself turned the guns of the Bastille on the pursuers. An insurrectional government was organised in the capital and proclaimed Monsieur lieutenant-general of the realm. Mazarin, feeling that public opinion was solidly against him, left France again, and the bourgeois of Paris, quarrelling with the princes, permitted the king to enter the city on October 21, 1652. Mazarin returned unopposed in February 1653.

The Franco-Spanish War (1653–1659)

The Fronde as a civil war was now over. The whole country, wearied of anarchy and disgusted with the princes, came to look to the king's party as the party of order and settled government, and thus the Fronde prepared the way for the absolutism of Louis XIV. The general war continued in Flanders, Catalonia and Italy wherever a Spanish and a French garrison were face to face, and Condé, with the wreck of his army, openly and definitely entered the service of the king of Spain. This "Spanish Fronde" was almost purely a military affair and, except for a few outstanding incidents, dull to boot. In 1653 France was so exhausted that neither invaders nor defenders were able to gather supplies to enable them to take the field till July. At one moment, near Péronne, Condé had Turenne at a serious disadvantage, but he could not galvanize the Spanish general Count Fuensaldana, who was more solicitous to preserve his master's soldiers than to establish Condé as mayor of the palace to the king of France, and the armies drew apart again without fighting. In 1654 the principal incident was the siege and relief of Arras. On the night of the 24th-25th August the lines of circumvallation drawn round that place by the prince were brilliantly stormed by Turenne's army, and Condé won equal credit for his safe withdrawal of the besieging corps under cover of a series of bold cavalry charges led by himself as usual, sword in hand. In 1655 Turenne captured the fortresses of Landrecies, Condé and St Ghislain. In 1656 the prince of Condé revenged himself for the defeat of Arras by storming Turenne's circumvallation around Valenciennes (16th July), but Turenne drew off his forces in good order. The campaign of 1657 was uneventful, and is only to be remembered because a body of 6000 British infantry, sent by Cromwell in pursuance of his treaty of alliance with Mazarin, took part in it. The presence of the English contingent and its very definite purpose of making Dunkirk a new Calais, to be held by England for ever, gave the next campaign a character of certainty and decision which was entirely wanting in the rest of the war. Dunkirk was besieged promptly and in great force, and when Don Juan of Austria and Condé appeared with the relieving army from Fumes, Turenne advanced boldly to meet them. The battle of the Dunes, fought on June 14, 1658, was the first real trial of strength since the battle of the Faubourg St Antoine. Successes on one wing were compromised by failure on the other, but in the end Condé drew off with heavy losses, the success of his own cavalry charges having entirely failed to make good the defeat of the Spanish right wing amongst the Dunes. Here the "red-coats" made their first appearance on a continental battlefield, under the leadership of Sir W. Lockhart, Cromwell's ambassador at Paris, and astonished both armies by the stubborn fierceness of their assaults, for they were the products of a war (English Civil War) where passions ran higher and the determination to win rested on deeper foundations than in the degringolade of the feudal spirit in which they now figured after decades of war had sapped the main parties of all belief. Dunkirk fell, and was handed over to England, as promised, so flying the St George's cross till Charles II sold it to the king of France. A last desultory campaign followed in 1659 — the twenty-fifth year of a conflict between France and Spain which had begun during the Thirty Years' War — and the peace of the Pyrenees was signed on November 5. On January 27, 1660 the prince asked and obtained at Aix the forgiveness of Louis XIV. The later careers of Turenne and Condé as great generals were as obedient subjects of their sovereign.

References

- Category:Civil wars Category:French military history Category:Wars of France

Catalonia

:There is a separate article on the historic territory of Catalonia. :For the part of historical Catalonia which is now part of France, see Northern Catalonia. Catalonia (Catalan: Catalunya; Spanish: Cataluña; Aranese: Catalonha) is one of the seventeen autonomous communities that constitute Spain. Its territory corresponds to most of the historic territory of the former Principality of Catalonia. The autonomous community of Catalonia covers an area of 31,950 km² with an official population of 6.8 million (2004). Immigrants represent 6.8 % of total population. Catalonia was officially recognised as a nationality in the Catalan Statute of Autonomy enacted in 1979 pursuant to the Spanish Constitution of 1978. Official languages are Catalan, Castilian (also known as Spanish), and (in Val d'Aran) Aranese.
Administration and Government of Catalonia
The Generalitat is the institution of government in Catalonia. It consists of a Parliament, a President and an Executive Council. [http://www10.gencat.net/gencat/AppJava/en/generalitat/generalitat/index.jsp] The Parliament of Catalonia has 135 seats and serves as the legislative body of government.[http://www.parlament-cat.net/portal/page?_pageid=34,33596&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL] The President and the Executive Council serve as the executive authority and are elected by the Parliament. The Government of Catalonia comprises 16 departments or ministries. [http://www10.gencat.net/gencat/AppJava/en/generalitat/departaments.jsp] See comarques of Catalonia for the official division in comarca (roughly equivalent to counties), used by the Generalitat. Local administration consists also of municipalities. Catalonia is divided in four provinces: Barcelona, Girona (Gerona in Spanish), Lleida (Lérida in Spanish, Lhèida in Aranese), Tarragona.Tarragona
Restoration of Catalan self-government
After Franco's death (1975) and the adoption of a democratic constitution in Spain (1978), Catalonia recovered its autonomous status (lost with the fall of the Second Spanish Republic at the conclusion of the Spanish Civil War in 1939). With a few exceptions, most of the justice system is administered by national judicial institutions. The legal system is common to all Spanish territories except for the civil law, which is regulated and administered independently within Catalonia [http://civil.udg.es/normacivil/catalunya.htm]. Catalan civil law regulates an ombudsman (Síndic de Greuges) [http://www.sindicgreugescat.org] to handle problems that may arise between private citizens or organizations and the Generalitat or other local governments. The region has gradually achieved a greater degree of autonomy since 1979. After the Navarre and the Basque Country regions, Catalonia has the greatest level of self-government in Spain. The Generalitat holds exclusive jurisdiction in various matters of culture, environment, communications, transportation, commerce, public safety and local governments. [http://www10.gencat.net/gencat/AppJava/en/generalitat/generalitat/competencies/exclusives.jsp] In many aspects relating to education, health and justice, the region shares jurisdiction with the Spanish government. [http://www10.gencat.net/gencat/AppJava/en/generalitat/generalitat/competencies/concurrents.jsp] One good example of Catalonia's degree of autonomy is its own police force, the Mossos d'Esquadra (literally 'squad lads'), which is currently in the process of taking over most of the role within Catalonia of the Guardia Civil and Policía Nacional, which are under the authority of the Spanish national government. However, even at the end of the transition process in 2008 [http://www.gencat.net/mossos/cme/desplegapdf/despleg.pdf], the Spanish government will keep a few agents in the region for matters relating to terrorism and immigration. Like the Mossos d'Esquadra, national police forces are under the authority of the government of Catalonia [http://www.gencat.net/mossos/cme/organitzacio/contingutpdf/FuncPGME.pdf]. As an autonomous community of Spain, Catalonia has no official status or recognition at an international level. However, as the region has progressively gained a greater degree of autonomy in recent years, the Catalan Government has opened some representative offices overseas. Most of these carry out limited functions such as the promotion of Catalan culture, trade and foreign investment, and even the contracting of foreign labour (with a view to easing problems with illegal immigration). [http://www.copca.com][http://www.cidem.com/cidem/cat/elcidem/info/cidem_en.jsp][http://www.copec.es/][http://nosaltres.vilaweb.com/info/vilaweb/vilaweb.generar_directori?p_idint=670561]
Language
Catalonia is the original heartland of Catalan, and remains the most important and largest territory where the language is spoken. Catalan is one of the two official languages of Catalonia, as laid down in the Catalan Statute of Autonomy [http://www10.gencat.net/gencat/AppJava/cat/generalitat/estatut/index.jsp]: the other is Castilian (Spanish), which is the majority language throughout Spain (its official status confirmed by the 1978 Spanish Constitution). Catalonia has regulated its institutions and their various competences within the framework provided by the Spanish constitution in the "Sau Statute." The similarity of Spanish and Catalan eases bilingualism, but they are certainly not dialects of a single language. Catalan is regarded by most linguists as being an Ibero-Romance language (the group that includes Spanish), but it has many features of Gallo-Romance languages such as French. Occitan, in its Aranese variety (a dialect of Gascon) is official and subject to special protection in the Val d'Aran (Aran Valley), which is notable, as this small region of 7,000 is the only place where Occitan (spoken mainly in France and some Italian valleys) has full official status.
Literacy
According to the 2001 Linguistic Census [http://www6.gencat.net/llengcat/socio/docs/censling2001.pdf], about 5,900,000 people in Catalonia, nearly 95% of residents, understand the Catalan language. The percentage of people aged two and older who can speak, read and write Catalan is as follows:
Over the last 20 years, knowledge of Catalan has advanced significantly in all these areas, with the ability to write it having experienced the most pronounced increase, from 31.6% of the population in 1986 to 49.8% in 2001. By age groups, those between 10 and 29 have the higher level of Catalan-language literacy (e.g., 98.2% aged 10–14 understand it, and 85.2% can write it); this is attributed to these individuals having received their full education in Catalan. Geographically, Catalan is most understood in northwest Catalonia (Alt Pirineu, Val d'Aran), at 97.4%, followed by south and western Catalonia, whereas Barcelona's metropolitan area sees the lowest knowledge, at 93.8%. The situation is analogous for written-language skills, with central Catalonia scoring the highest percentages (61.4%), and Barcelona the lowest (46.4%). Barcelona is one of the centres of the Spanish book industry in Spanish and the main one for Catalan-language publishing.
Social Use
According to a study carried out in 2003 by the Generalitat de Catalunya [http://www6.gencat.net/llengcat/socio/docs/usos2003.pdf], Catalan is used by 50.1% of the population in everyday situations. Significantly, over 55% of respondents use Spanish to address their parents (versus 42% who choose Catalan). This is attributed to massive immigration from southern Spain from the second half of the 20th century until the 1980s, as a consequence of which many Catalans have one or both parents from outside Catalonia. However, a majority (52.6%) use Catalan with their children (42.3% Spanish). This can be attributed to some Spanish-speaking citizens shifting from their mother tongue to Catalan at home. Outside the family, 48.6% of the population indicate that they address strangers exclusively or preferentially in Catalan, while the proportion of those who use Spanish is 41.7%. 8.6% claim to use both equally. See Catalan language for further information.
Aranese
According to the 2001 Aranese Linguistic Census [http://www6.gencat.net/llengcat/aran/docs/a_aran_cens.pdf], knowledge of Aranese in the Occitan-speaking territory of Aran is as follows:
Comparing to previous data from 1996, the number of those able to understand Aranese has declined slightly (90.5% in 1996), while at the same time there has been a marginal increase in the number of those able to write it (24.97% in 1996). By age groups, the largest percentage of those with knowledge of Aranese is in the 15-19 and 65-69 groups (both above 96%), while those aged 30-34 score lowest (just over 80%). Literacy is higher in the 10-19 group with over 88% declaring themselves able to read, and 76% able to write Aranese. Those over 80 are the least literate, with only about 1.5% of them being able to write the language. According to their place of origin, it is significant to note that in the Val d'Aran those born outside Spain outnumber Spaniards born outside Aran and Catalonia in the active use of Aranese (17% of non-Spaniards can write Aranese, while the percentage for Spaniards excluding Catalans is 10%). Aranese]
Politics of Catalonia
:See also Politics of Catalonia The first Catalan constitutions are of the Corts of Barcelona from 1283. The last ones were promulgated by the court of 1702. The compilations of the constitutions and other rights of Catalonia followed the Roman tradition of the Codex. During the 19th and 20th centuries, Catalonia was one of the main centres of Spanish industrialisation. The struggle between the Barcelonese conservative bourgeoisie and the working class, often immigrants from the rest of Spain, dominated Catalan politics. Catalan nationalist and federalist movements arose in the nineteenth century, and when the Second Republic was declared in 1931, Catalonia became an autonomous region. Following the fall of the Second Republic after the Spanish Civil War of 1936-39, the authoritarian dictatorship of General Francisco Franco annulled Catalonia's autonomy statute and prohibited any official promotion or recognition of the Catalan language (although its private everday use was never proscribed). During the last decade of Franco's rule, there was a resurgence of nationalist sentiment in Catalonia as in the other 'historic' region of the Basque provinces. Following Franco's death in 1975 and the restoration of full democracy by 1978, Catalonia regained its status as an autonomous region within Spain. The Catalan nationalist leader Jordi Pujol came to power in the first regional elections in 1980 and his two-party coalition, Convergence and Unity (Convergència i Unió or CiU), won successive elections for 23 years. Terra Lliure ("Free Land"), which was essentially a terrorist group, sought to achieve independence through violence against Spanish interests and the wider population, but it never achieved the infamy or reach of the Basque terrorist organisatoin ETA, and disbanded after negotiations with the national government. Following the 1996 national elections in Spain, and despite his long track-record as a Catalan nationalist (especially during the Franco era), Pujol surprised many by lending CiU's support to the minority government formed by the conservative - and essentially centralist - People's Party (Partido Popular or PP) led by José María Aznar. Some nationalist factions became increasingly dissatisfied with Pujol's rule, especially the ERC. At the same time, the Party of Catalan Socialists (Partit dels Socialistes de Catalunya or PSC), a sister-party of Spain's main socialist party (Partido Socialista Obrero Espanol or PSOE) based in the industrial heartland of Barcelona, began to enjoy renewed electoral popularity. One of the 'fault-lines' in contemporary Catalan politics arises from the fact that Barcelona, with its strong metropolitan economy, continues to attract migrants from all over Spain and Latin America. As a result, Spanish remains the language spoken by the majority of Barcelona's inhabitants, particularly in working-class areas. By contrast, Catalan remains the predominant language in middle-class and upper-class urban areas, as well as among the region's rural population. The PSC has to some extent become the party of those who resent the dominance of middle-class Catalan nationalists over Barcelona. In any case, while Catalan has undoubtedly experienced a spectacular revival since the death of Franco, the dominant presence of Spanish-speakers will continue to make universal or exclusive use of Catalan unlikely. Recently there has been an influx of African and East European immigrants, but this has not yet influenced the political scene, even though the demographic impact of immigration can clearly be seen on the streets. At the regional elections held on November 16 2003, at which Pujol retired, the combined parties of the left defeated the CiU for the first time and Pasqual Maragall i Mira became President of the Generalitat. Maragall's Socialists, however, actually lost seats: the big winners were the Republican Left of Catalonia (Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya or ERC), which favours full Catalan independence, and the Greens. While PSC mantains the post of President of the Generalitat (Maragall), ERC nominates the conseller primer (prime minister) — currently, Bargalló. Maragall's government is a somewhat uneasy coalition between the PSC, the ERC, and the ICV.
Current political issues
Unlike the autonomous communities of Navarre and the Basque Country, Catalonia lacks its own fiscal system; thus the economic financing of the regional administration depends almost entirely on funds raised by national-government taxation and budgeted to Catalonia. This has become a mainstream issue, particularly as the the proposed reform of the Catalan Statute of Autonomy is currently the subject of intense political debate at regional and national level. From an economic perspective, the regional government aims to achieve a high degree of fiscal autonomy (based on the argument that the region pays in more to the national Spanish coffers than it receives). There is currently (Autumn 2005) a raging political controversy in Spain as a result of the Catalan parliament's proposed draft of a replacement Autonomy Statute (supported by some 90% of the parliament's elected deputies) which seeks to define Catalonia as a 'nation'[http://www.gencat.net/nouestatut/]. The polemic centres on the politically sensitive issue of whether such a definition (though already implicit in the constitutional reference to the historic "nationalites" of Spain) can be said to harbour separatist overtones contrary to Article 2 of Spain's 1978 Constitution, that states "the indissoluble unity of Spain."
Parties

- CiU — Convergència i Unió (Convergence and Unity) - federation
- CDC — Convergència Democràtica de Catalunya (Democratic Convergence of Catalonia)
- UDC — Unió Democràtica de Catalunya (Democratic Union of Catalonia)
- ERC — Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (Republican Left of Catalonia)
- ICV-EUiA — Iniciativa per Catalunya-Verds – Esquerra Unida i Alternativa (Green Initiative for Catalonia-Left United Alternative)
- PP — Partit Popular (People's Party)
- PSC-PSOE — Partit dels Socialistes de Catalunya-Partido Socialista Obrero Español (Socialist Party of Catalonia-Spanish Socialist Workers' Party)
Summary of votes and seats
Votes and seats are compared with those won at the 1999 election. Voters: 5,307,837 Voting: 3,319,276 62.5% Invalid votes: 8,793 00.3% Valid votes: 3,310,483 99.7% ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Party Votes % Seats ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Convergència i Unió 1,024,425 30.9 (-06.8) 46 (-10) Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya 544,324 16.4 (+07.7) 23 (+11) Iniciativa Verds-Esquerra Alternativa 241,163 07.3 (+04.8) 9 (+06) Partit Popular 393,499 11.9 (+02.4) 15 (+03) Partit Socialista de Catalunya 1,031,454 31.2 (-06.6) 42 (-10) Others 75,618 02.3 - ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Total 3,310,483 135 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Geography
:See also :Category:Geography of Catalonia The Spanish autonomous community of Catalonia borders on Comunidad Valenciana to the south, Aragon to the west, France and Andorra to the north, and the Mediterranean Sea to the east and southeast. Mountains:
- Catalan Pyrenees: Val d'Aran in the north face, Pica d'Estats 3141 m., Puigmal 2911 m., Cerdagne depression, Perthus pass (near the ancient Roman road).
- Catalan Litoral mountains: Montseny, Montserrat, Montsant.
- Iberic system: Maestrat. Montserrat Major rivers:
- Fluvià
- Ter
- Llobregat
- Foix
- Francolí
- Gaià
- Ebre and its tributaries: Noguera, Segre, Valira.
Environmental Policy
Awareness of environmental problems tends to be much lower in Catalonia (and in Spain as a whole) than in northern Europe. CO₂ emissions in Catalonia have increased by 40% since 1992 and 60% of the region's electricity comes from aging nuclear power stations (a figure exceeded in Europe only by France and Lithuania). Despite Catalonia's change of government in 2004 from a conservative CiU/PP alliance to a "red/green" tripartite coalition of PSC, ERC, and ICV parties, there is little evidence of greater concern for the environment. The ICV was put in charge of the Ministry of the Environment but has largely continued the outgoing administration's environmentally-unfriendly policies. The Ministry's decision to build the controversial Bracons tunnel through an area of outstanding natural beauty, and a scheme to site an incinerator burning 90,000 metric tonnes of industrial waste [http://www.valldelges.net/en] in a heavily-populated valley are just two cases in point. Although Catalonia participates in many international environmental forums, the political will to pursue "green" polices is generally lacking. This may be explained by the greater acceptance of political corruption found in southern Europe, the fragility of public institutions, and a lack of genuine commitment to grass-roots democracy.
UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Catalonia
There are several UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Catalonia:
- Sagrada Familia, Barcelona
- "La Patum" of Berga (2005)
- Archaeological Ensemble of Tarraco, Tarragona
- Catalan Romanesque Churches of the Vall de Boí
- Parc Güell, Barcelona
- Palau Güell, Barcelona
- Casa Milà, Barcelona
- Poblet Monastery, Poblet, Tarragona province
- Palau de la Música Catalana, Barcelona
- Hospital de Sant Pau, Barcelona
See also

- .cat
- Barcelona
- Catalan Countries
- Cuisine of Catalonia
- Education in Catalonia
- Famous Catalan People
- Flags of non-sovereign nations
- History of Catalonia
- Principality of Catalonia
External links

- [http://www10.gencat.net/gencat/AppJava/en/catalunya/laclau/english/index.jsp The key to Catalonia]: Site of the Generalitat de Catalunya
- [http://www.idescat.es/idescat_ang.htm Statistical information from Idescat (Catalan Institute of Statistics)]
- [http://www.lodgephoto.com/galleries/spain/ Photographs of Catalonia including Barcelona, Girona, Besalu] and surrounding countryside
- [http://flickr.com/groups/catalunya/ Catalunya images at flickr.com]
- [http://www.catalanencyclopaedia.com/ Catalan Hyperencyclopaedia]: Encyclopaedia with information about Catalonia in English
- News media in English
- [http://www.barcelonareporter.com/ Barcelona Reporter]: news and views from the Catalan capital
- [http://www.cataloniatoday.info/ Catalonia Today] - Catalan newspaper in English Category:Catalonia Category:Catalan Countries Category:Autonomous communities of Spain Category:NUTS 2 Statistical Regions of Europe Category:European countries zh-min-nan:Catalunya ko:카탈루냐 지방 ja:カタルーニャ州 simple:Catalonia

Political absolutism

Absolutism is a political theory which argues that one person (generally, a monarch) should hold all power. This is often referred to as the "Divine Right of Kings", implying that a ruler's authority stems directly from God. Prominent theorists associated with absolutism include Augustine of Hippo, Paul of Tarsus, Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet, and Thomas Hobbes. Hobbes, in his philosophy of natural law, believed that absolutist rulers emerged according to the baser instincts of humans, specifically their fear of death and their need for power. In his philosophy, there could be no social order without the ceding of power to a single individual who would use power to restrain the violent and anti-social tendencies of the people. To those who believed the absolute ruler was chosen by God, rebellion against the monarch was tantamount to rebellion against God. Hence, rule was considered "absolute," in that the ruler could not be challenged. Later absolutist rulers sometimes tried to rule according to Enlightenment principles, and so are called enlightened absolutists. They attempted to allow their subjects to live more freely in their day-to-day lives, while still maintaining the autocratic monarchy. Absolutism, as a term, did not appear until the 19th century, when the traditional "age of absolutism" had passed. Some historians see the Absolutist Monarchs as a direct consequence of the centralization of the state under the New Monarchs. The seventeenth century Kings of England, James I and Charles I of England are often cited as Absolutist monarchs. This is a popular misconception; in actuality both operated in the context of regular parliaments. Were it not for their empowered subjects, however, both were said to have had designs on establishing an absolute monarchy.

Absolutist Monarchs

- Louis XIV of France
- Catherine I and Peter I of Russia
- Frederick Wilhelm I of Prussia
- Charles XI and Charles XII of Sweden
- kings of Denmark (with Norway) 1665-1848 (though some of them enlightened)

20th Century Absolute Rulers

- Kim Il Sung
- Kim Jong-il
- Adolf Hitler
- Josef Stalin
- Francisco Franco
- Benito Mussolini

Scottish Civil War

The Scottish Civil War of 1644–47 was part of wider conflict known as the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, which included the Bishops Wars, the English Civil War and Irish Confederate Wars. The war was fought between Scottish Royalists — supporters of Charles I, under James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose, and the Covenanters, who had controlled Scotland since 1639 and allied themselves with the English Parliament. The Scottish Royalists, aided by Irish troops, had a rapid series of victories in 1644–45, but were eventually defeated by the Covenanters. However, the Covenanters themselves then found themselves at odds with the English Parliament and backed the claims of Charles II to the thrones of England and Scotland. This led to the Second and Third English Civil Wars, when Scotland was invaded, conquered and occupied by the Parliamentarian New Model Army under Oliver Cromwell.

Origins of the War — Wars in Three Kingdoms

Oliver Cromwell Scotland had helped to spark this series of civil wars in 1639, when it had risen in revolt against Charles I's religious policies. The National Covenant of Scotland was formed to resist the King's imposition of Anglicanism on Presbyterian Scotland. In practice, the Covenant also represented wider Scottish dissatisfaction with Charles' policies, especially the sidelining of Scotland since the Stuart Kings had also become monarchs of England in 1603. The Covenanters raised a large army from the dependants of their landed class and successfully resisted Charles I's attempt to re-conquer Scotland in the so called Bishops Wars. The Scottish uprising triggered civil war in Charles' other two Kingdoms, first in Ireland, then in England. Charles and his minister Wentworth were unable to persuade the English Parliament, which itself was unhappy with Charles' civil and religious policies, to pay for an army to put down the Scots. As a result, they had proposed raising an army from Irish Catholics, in return for abolishing discriminatory laws against them. This prospect alarmed Charles' enemies in England and Scotland and the Covenanters threatened to invade Ireland. In response a group of Irish conspirators launched the Irish Rebellion of 1641, which quickly degenerated into a series of massacres of English and Scottish Protestant settlers in Ireland. This in turn sparked civil war in England, because the Long Parliament did not trust Charles with command of an army to put down the Irish rebellion, fearing that it would also be used against them. The English Civil War broke out in 1642. The Scottish Covenanters sent an army to Ulster in Ireland in 1642 to protect the Scottish settlers there. In 1643, following the signing of a treaty — The Solemn League and Covenant — with the English Parliament, the bulk of the Covenanters armed forces were sent south to fight on the Parliamentarian side in the English Civil War.

Scottish Royalists

Parliamentarian However, some in Scotland continued to side with the King. These were most prominent in the Highlands and north-east of Scotland. There were several factors that inclined people towards Royalism. Among them were religion, culture, clan politics and political allegiance. The Covenanters were committed to establishing Presbyterianism as the national religion of Scotland, however many people in the northern and Highlands regions were Anglicans or Roman Catholics. Furthermore, the Highlands was a distinct cultural, political and economic region of Scotland. It was Gaelic in language and customs and at this time was largely outside of the control of the governments of England and Scotland. Some Highland clans preferred the more distant authority of Charles Stuart with the powerful and well organised Lowlands based government of the Covenanters. However, the largest Highland clan, the Campbells, led by their chief, Archibald Campbell, 1st Marquess of Argyll, did side with the Covenanters. This meant that the Campbell's rivals in the violent world of clan politics, notably the MacDonalds, automatically took the opposing side. It should be said that some of these factors overlap, for instance the MacDonalds were Catholics, sworn enemies of the Campbells and had a strong Gaelic (Irish as well as Highland) identity. Finally, there were those like James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose, who were both Lowlanders and Presbyterians but who saw allegiance to the King as more important than any other religious or political principal.

The Irish Intervention

Presbyterians" shows the Highland charge from the era of the Jacobite Risings, the tactic was pioneered in the Scottish Civil War by Alasdair MacColla]] Montrose had already tried and failed to lead a Royalist uprising by 1644, when he was presented with a ready made Royalist army. The Irish Confederates, who were loosely aligned with the Royalists, agreed in that year to send an expedition to Scotland. From their point of view, this would tie up Scottish Covenanter troops who would otherwise be used in Ireland or England. The Irish sent 1500 men to Scotland under the command of Alasdair MacColla MacDonald, a MacDonald clansman from the Western Isles of Scotland. Shortly after landing, the Irish linked up with Montrose at Blair Atholl and proceeded to raise forces from the MacDonalds and other anti-Campbell Highland clans. The new Royalist army led by Montrose and MacColla was in some respects very formidable. Its Irish and Highland troops were extremely mobile, marching quickly over long distances - even over the rugged Highland terrain - and were capable of enduring very harsh conditions and poor rations. They did not fight in the conventional pike and musket formations used by most armies at the time, but launched rapid charges, firing their muskets at close range before closing with swords and half-pikes. This tactic swept away the poorly trained Covenanter militias that were sent against them. These locally raised levies frequently ran away when faced with a terrifying Highland charge, resulting in them being slaughtered as they ran. On the other hand, the clans from the west of Scotland could not be persuaded to fight for long away from their homes - seeing their principal enemy as the Campbells rather than the Covenanters. The Royalists also lacked cavalry, leaving them vulnerable in open country. Finally, although they won a string of victories, the Scottish Royalists were unable to hold territory after they had taken it, retreating again and again to the safety of the Highlands.

Tippermuir, Aberdeen and Inverlochy

cavalry In the Autumn of 1644, the Royalists marched across the Highlands to Perth, where they smashed a Covenanter force at the battle of Tippermuir. Shortly afterwards, another Covenanter militia met a similar fate outside Aberdeen. Unwisely, Montrose let his men pillage Perth and Aberdeen after taking them, leading to hostility to his forces in an area where Royalist sympathies had been strong. Following these victories, MacColla insisted on pursuing the MacDonald's war against the Campbells in Argyll in western Scotland. In December 1644, the Royalists rampaged through the Campbell's country, killing around 900 civilian men of military age and burning their homesteads. In response to the attack on his clansmen, Archibald Campbell, 1st Marquess of Argyll assembled the Campbell clansmen to repel the invaders. In February 1645, the Campbells met the Royalist and Highland force at the battle of Inverlochy, near Lochaber and Ben Nevis. The Campbells were crushed, taking heavy casualties. Montrose's troops, in particular the Clan Donald clansmen and Irish Confederates, gained a very bad reputation among the general Scottish population. They committed a series of attrocities against enemy civilians, especially when campaigning in the Campbell territory of Argyll. By modern standards, the Scottish Royalist's were certainly guilty of war-crimes, although it should be said that the Covenanter's troops behaved equally badly in the Highlands, north-east Scotland and Ulster towards civilians in Royalist or Confederate controlled territory.

Triumph and Disaster for the Royalists

Their victory at Inverlochy gave the Royalists control over the western Highlands and attracted other clans and noblemen to their cause. The most important of these were the Gordons, who provided the Royalists with cavalry for the first time. Another Covenanter army under John Urry was hastily assembled and sent against the Royalists but was defeated at Auldearn, near Nairn. Yet another Covenanter levy was crushed by Montrose's men at Alford, and another at Kilsyth when it tried to block the victorious Royalist's advance into the Lowlands. This string of battles showed the dangers of sending half-trained, or even untrained, troops into battle and resulted in giving Montrose temporary control over almost all of Scotland. In late 1645, such prominent towns as Dundee and Glasgow fell to his forces. However, whereas Montrose wanted to further Royalist objectives by raising troops in the south east of Scotland and marching on England, MacColla showed that his priorities lay with war of the MacDonalds against the Campbells and occupied Argyll. The Gordons also returned home, to defend their own lands in the north-east. Montrose, his forces having split up, was routed by the Covenanters at the battle of Philiphaugh. MacColla retreated to Kintyre, where he held out until the following year. The Royalist victories in Scotland therefore evaporated almost overnight owing to the disunited nature of their forces.

The End of the Scottish Civil War

The first English Civil War had ended in May 1646, when Charles I surrendered to the Scottish Covenanter army in England. The Scots promptly handed him over to the English Parliament in return for a large cash payment. Experienced Covenanter troops could be brought back to Scotland to mop up the remaining Royalists there. In 1647, Montrose fled for Norway, while MacColla returned to Ireland with his remaining Irish and Highland troops to re-join the Confederates. Those who had fought for Montrose, particularly the Irish, were massacred by the Covenanters whenever they were captured, in reprisal for the atrocities the Royalists had committed in Argyll.

Scotland and the Second and Third English Civil Wars

Confederates

Second Civil War

Ironically, no sooner had the Covenanters defeated the Royalists at home than they were negotiating with Charles I against the English Parliament. The Covenanters could not get their erstwhile allies to agree on a political and religious settlement to the wars, failing to get Presbyterianism established as the official religion in the Three Kingdoms and fearing that the Parliamentarians would threaten Scottish independence. Many Covenanters feared that under Parliament, "our poor country should be made a province of England". A faction of the Covenanters known as "the Engagers," led by the Duke of Hamilton, therefore sent an army to England to try to restore Charles I in 1648. However it was routed by Oliver Cromwell's New Model Army at Preston. Charles was executed by the Rump Parliament in 1649, and Hamilton, who had been captured after Preston, was executed soon after. This left the extreme covenanters, still led by Argyll, as the main force in the Kingdom.

Montrose's defeat and death

In June 1649, Montrose was restored by the exiled Charles II to the now nominal lieutenancy of Scotland. Charles also open negotiations with the Covenanters, now dominated by the radical Presbyterian "Kirk Party" or "Whigs". Because Montrose had very little support in the lowlands, Charles was willing to disavow his most consistent supporter in order to become a king on terms dictated by the Covenanters. In March 1650 Montrose landed in the Orkneys to take the command of a small force, composed mainly of continental mercenaries, which he had sent on before him. Crossing to the mainland, he tried in vain to raise the clans, and on 27 April he was surprised and routed at Carbiesdale in Ross-shire. After wandering for some time he was surrendered by Macleod of Assynt, to whose protection, in ignorance of Macleod's political enmity, he had entrusted himself. He was brought a prisoner to Edinburgh, and on 20 May sentenced to death by the Parliament. He was hanged on the 21st, with Wishart's laudatory biography of him put round his neck. To the last he protested that he was a real Covenanter and a loyal subject.

Third Civil War

Wishart In spite of their conflict with the Scottish Royalists, the Covenanters then committed themselves to the cause of Charles II, signing the Treaty of Breda (1650) with him in the hope of securing a independent Presbyterian Scotland free of English Parliamentary interference. Charles landed in Scotland at Garmouth in Morayshire on June 23 1650 and signed the 1638 Covenant and the 1643 Solemn League immediately after coming ashore. The threat posed by King Charles II with his his new Covenanter allies was considered to be the greatest facing the new English Republic so Oliver Cromwell left some of his lieutenants in Ireland to continue the suppression of the Irish Royalists and crossed the Irish channel to Scotland. He arrived in Scotland on July 22 1650 and proceeded to lay siege to Edinburgh. By the end of August, his army was reduced by disease and running out of supplies, so he was forced to order a retreat towards England. A Scottish Covenanter army under the command of David Leslie had been shadowing his progress, and Leslie was happy to see Cromwell's troops forced to retreat for lack of supplies. However, he was ordered by the Covenanter General Assembly to bring the English to battle. The New Model Army inflicted a crushing defeat on them at the subsequent Battle of Dunbar on September 3. Leslie's army, which had strong ideological ties to the radical Kirk Party, was destroyed, losing over 14,000 men killed, wounded and taken prisoner. Cromwell's army then took Edinburgh and by the end of the year his army had occupied much of southern Scotland. This military disaster discredited the radical Covenanters known as the Kirk Party and caused the Covenanters and Scottish Royalists to bury their differences (at least temporarily) to try and repel the English parliamentarian invasion of Scotland. The Scottish Parliament passed the Act of Levy in December 1650, requiring every burgh and shire to raise a quota of soldiers. A new round of conscription was undertaken, both in the Highlands and the Lowlands, to form a truly national army named the Army of the Kingdom, that was put under the command of Charles II himself. Although this was actually the largest force put into the field by the Scots during the Wars, it was badly trained and its morale was low as many of its constituent Royalist and Covenanter parts had until recently been killing each other. In July 1651 Cromwell's forces crossed the Firth of Forth into Fife and defeated the Scots at the Battle of Inverkeithing. The New Model Army advanced towards Perth, which allowed Charles at the head of the Scottish army to move south into England. Desperate, the Scottish army commanded by Charles II attempted a last ditch invasion of England to outflank Cromwell and spark a Royalist uprising there. Cromwell followed Charles into England leaving George Monck to finish the campaign in Scotland. Monck took Stirling on the August 14 and Dundee on September 1. The Scottish Army of the Kingdom marched towards the west of England because it was in that area that English Royalist sympathies were strongest. However, although some English Royalists joined the army, they came in far fewer numbers than Charles and his Scottish supporters had hoped. Cromwell finally engaged the new king at Worcester on September 3, 1651, and beat him - in the process all but wiping out his army, killing 3000 and taking 10,000 more prisoners. This marked the real end of the Scottish war effort. Charles escaped to the European continent and with his flight the Coventers hopes for political independence from the Commonwealth of England were dashed.

From Occupation to Restoration

Commonwealth of England–1666. Monck commanded the Parliamentarian forces that occupied Scotland during the Interregnum and in 1660 led his troops to London to restore the monarchy]] The next year, 1652, the remnants of organised Royalist resistance in Scotland was mopped up. Dunottar Castle was the last stronghold to fall to the English Parliament's troops in May 1652. Under the terms of the "Tender of Union", the Scots were given 30 seats in a united Parliament in London, with General Monck appointed as the military governor of Scotland. During the Interregnum, Scotland was kept under the military occupation of an English army under George Monck. Sporadic Royalist rebellions continued throughout the Commonwealth period in Scotland, particularly in western Highlands, where Alasdair MacColla had raised his forces in the 1640s. Monck garrisoned forts all over the Highlands - for example at Inverness, and finally put an end to Royalist resistance when he began deporting prisoners to the West Indies as slaves. However, lawlessness remained a problem, with bandits known as mosstroopers, very often former Royalist or Covenanter soldiers, plundering both the English troops and the civilian population. After the death of Oliver Cromwell in 1658, the factions and divisions which had struggled for supremacy during the early years of the interregnum reemerged. Monck, who had served Cromwell and the English Parliament throughout the civil wars, judged that his best interests and those of his country lay in the Restoration of Charles II. In 1660, he marched his troops south from Scotland to ensure the monarchy's reinstatement. Scotland's Parliament and legislative autonomy were restored under the Restoration, though many issues that had led to the wars; religion, Scotland's form of government and the status of the Highlands, remained unresolved. After the Glorious Revolution of 1689, many more Scots would die over the same disputes in Jacobite rebellions.

The Cost

Its is estimated that roughly 28,000 men were killed in combat in the Scottish Civil War. More soldiers usually died of disease than in action at this time (the ratio was often 3-1), so it is reasonable to speculate that the true military death toll is higher than this figure. In addition, it is estimated that around 15,000 civilians died as direct result of the war - either through massacres or by disease. More indirectly, another 30,000 people died of the plague in Scotland between 1645 ad 1649, a disease that was partly spread by the movement of armies throughout the country. If we also take into account the thousands of Scottish troops who died in the civil wars in England and Ireland (another 20,000 soldiers at least), the Wars of the Three Kingdoms certainly represents one of the bloodiest episodes in Scottish history.

Sources

- David Stephenson, Alasdair MacColla and the Highland Problem in the Seventeenth century, Edinburgh 1980.
- Jane Ohlmeyer, John Kenyon (Ed.?s) The Civil Wars, Oxford 1998.(Chapter on the Civil Wars in Scotland by Edward Furgol).

Confederate Ireland

Confederate Ireland refers to a brief period of Irish self-government between the Rebellion of 1641 and the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland in 1649. During this time, two-thirds of Ireland was governed by the Irish Catholic Confederation, also known as the 'Confederation of Kilkenny' (based in the city of Kilkenny). The remaining Protestant enclaves in Ulster, Munster and Leinster were held by armies loyal to the royalists, parliamentarians or Scottish Covenanters during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. The Confederates failed to defeat the British armies in Ireland in 1642–1649 in a conflict known as the Irish Confederate Wars and joined a royalist alliance in 1648 against the Rump Parliament.

Rebellion and the formation of the Confederation

this is a political history, for a military history of this time, see Irish Confederate Wars Irish Confederate Wars The Catholic Confederation was formed in the aftermath of the 1641 rebellion, both to control the popular uprising and to organise an Irish Catholic war effort against the remaining British armies in Ireland. It was hoped that by doing this, the Irish Catholics could hold off an English or Scottish re-conquest of the country. The initiative for the Confederation came from a Catholic bishop, Nicholas French and a lawyer named Nicholas Plunkett. They put forth their proposals for a government to Irish Catholic nobles such as Viscount Gormanstown, Lord Mountgarret and Viscount Muskerry. These men committed their own armed forces to the Confederation and persuaded other rebels to join it. Members of the Confederation took an oath on joining to uphold the Roman Catholic religion, the King's Rights and the liberty of Ireland. The Confederate's constitution was written by another lawyer, a Galway man named Patrick Darcy. In some respects, the Confederation was quite democratic for its time. The Confederate government was composed of a General Assembly, a parliament in all but name, elected from and by Irish landowners and Catholic clergy, which in turn elected an executive known as the Supreme Council. The General Assembly and the Supreme Council both met in the city of Kilkenny, with the Assembly being called annually to review the work of the Supreme Council. The Confederates immediately set up an extensive system of taxation to finance the war, and sent envoys to the Catholic powers in continental Europe. However, the Confederate Catholic Association of Ireland never actually claimed to be an independent government, because (in the context of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms) they professed to be Royalists, loyal to Charles I. Since only the King could legally call a Parliament, the Confederate General Assembly never claimed to be a Parliament either, although it acted like one. In negotiations with the Royalists, the Confederates demanded that all concessions made to them would be ratified in post war Irish Parliament, which would have resembled the Confederate General Assembly including some Protestant Royalists. The Confederate's stated objective was to reach an agreement with the King, Charles I. The ambitions were: full rights for Catholics in Ireland, toleration of the Catholic religion, and self-government for Ireland. The motto of the Confederation was Pro Deo, Rege et Patria, Hibernia Unanimis – "for God, King and Fatherland, Ireland is United". The members of the Supreme Council were predominantly of Old English descent and were distrusted by many of the Gaelic Irish, who felt they were too moderate in their demands. The more radical Confederates pressed for a reversal of the plantations and the establishment of Catholicism as state religion in Ireland. The Confederates as a whole believed that their aspirations were best served by alliance with the royalist cause and therefore made supporting the King a central part of their strategy. This was because the English Parliament and Scottish Covenanters had threatened before the war to invade Ireland and destroy the Catholic religion and Irish land-owning class. The King, by contrast, had repeatedly promised them some concessions. However, while the moderate Confederates were anxious to come to an agreement with Charles I, the more radical members wished to force the King to accept a self-governing Catholic Ireland before they came to terms with him. Failing that, they advocated an independent alliance with France or Spain.

Cessation with the royalists, the Nuncio's arrival and the first Ormonde peace

In 1643, the Confederates negotiated a ceasefire or cessation of hostilities, with the royalists in Ireland and opened negotiations with James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormonde, the King's representative in Ireland. This meant that hostilities ceased between the Confederates and Ormonde’s royalist army in Dublin. However, the English garrison in Cork (which was commanded by Murrough O’Brien, Earl Inchiquinn, a rare Gaelic Irish Protestant) objecting to the ceasefire, mutinied and declared allegiance to the English Parliament. The Scottish Covenanters had also landed an army in Ulster in 1642, which remained hostile to the Confederates. In 1644, the Confederates sent around 1,500 men under Alasdair MacColla to Scotland to support the royalists there under James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose against the Covenanters, sparking the Scottish Civil War. The Confederates received modest subsidies from the monarchies of France and Spain, who wanted to recruit troops in Ireland but their main continental support came from the Papacy. Pope Innocent X strongly supported Confederate Ireland, over the objections of Mazarin and the Queen Mother, Henrietta Maria, exiled in Paris. Innocent received the Confederation's envoy in February 1645 and resolved to send a nuncio extraordinary to Ireland, Giovanni Battista Rinuccini, archbishop of Fermo, who embarked from La Rochelle with the Confederacy's secretary, Richard Bellings. He took with him a large quantity of arms and military supplies and a very large sum of money. These supplies meant that Rinuccinin had a big influence on the Confederate's internal politics and he was backed by the more militant Confederates such as Owen Roe O'Neill. At Kilkenny Rinuccini was received with great honours, asserting that the object of his mission was to sustain the King, but above all to help the Catholic people of Ireland in securing the free and public exercise of the Catholic religion, and the restoration of the churches and church property. The nuncio considered himself the virtual head of the Confederate Catholic party in Ireland. By March 1646, however, the Supreme Council of the Confederates had come to an agreement with Ormonde, signed March 28. Under its terms Catholics would be allowed to serve in public office and found schools; there were also verbal promises of future concessions on religious toleration. There was an amnesty for acts committed in the Rebellion of 1641 and a guarantee against further seizure of Irish Catholic land. The Supreme Council also put great hope in a secret treaty they had concluded with the Earl of Glamorgan on the King's behalf, which promised further concessions to Irish Catholics in the future. However, there was no reversal of Poynings Law which subordinated the Irish Parliament to the English one, no reversal of the Protestant domination of Parliament and no reversal of the main plantations, or colonisation, in Ulster and Munster. In return for these concessions Irish troops would be sent to England to fight for the royalists in the English Civil War. However, the terms agreed were not acceptable to either the Catholic clergy, the Irish military commanders – notably Owen Roe O'Neill and Thomas Preston – or the majority of the General Assembly. Nor was Rinuccini the papal nuncio party to the treaty, which left untouched the objects of his mission; he had induced nine of the Irish bishops to sign a protest against any arrangement with Ormonde or the king that would not guarantee the maintenance of the Catholic religion. Many believed the Supreme Council were unreliable, since many of them were related to Ormonde or otherwise bound to him. Besides, it was pointed out that the English Civil War had already been decided in the English Parliament’s favour and that sending Irish troops to the royalists would be a futile sacrifice. On the other hand, many felt after O’Neill’s Ulster army defeated the Scots at the battle of Benburb, that the Confederates were in a position to re-conquer all of Ireland. Furthermore, those who opposed the peace were backed, both spiritually and financially, by Rinuccini, who threatened to excommunicate the "peace party". The Supreme Council were arrested and the General Assembly voted to reject the deal.

Military defeat and a new Ormonde peace

After the Confederates rejected the peace deal, Ormonde, handed Dublin over to a parliamentarian army under Michael Jones. The Confederates now tried to eliminate the remaining Protestant outposts in Dublin and Cork, but in 1647 suffered a series of military disasters. First, Thomas Preston’s Leinster army was destroyed by Jone’s parliamentarians at the battle of Dungans Hill in Meath. Then the Confederates Munster army met a similar fate at the hands of Inchiquinn’s British forces at the battle of Knocknanauss. These setbacks made most Confederates much more eager to come to reach an agreement with the royalists and negotiations were re-opened. The Supreme Council got generous terms from Charles I and Ormonde, including toleration of the Catholic religion, a commitment to repealing Poynings Law (and therefore to Irish self-government), recognition of lands taken by Irish Catholics during the war and a commitment to a partial reversal of the Plantation of Ulster. In addition, there was to be an Act of Oblivion, or amnesty for all acts committed during the 1641 rebellion and Confederate wars – in particular the killings of British Protestant settlers in 1641 - and the Confederate armies would remain in existence. However Charles granted these terms only out of desperation. and in fact he later repudiated them. Under the terms of the agreement, the Confederation was to dissolve itself, place its troops under royalist commanders and accept English royalist troops. Inchiquinn also defected from the Parliament and rejoined the royalists in Ireland.

Civil War within the Confederation

However, many of the Irish Catholics continued to reject a deal with the royalists. Owen Roe O'Neill refused to join the new royalist alliance and fought with the royalists and Confederates in the summer of 1648.The Papal Nuncio, Rinuccini endeavored to uphold Owen Roe O'Neill by excommunicating all who took part in a truce; but he could not get the Irish Catholic Bishops to agree on the matter. On February 23, 1649, he embarked at Galway, in his own frigate, to return to Rome. It is often argued that this split within the Confederate ranks represented a split between Gaelic Irish and Old English. It is suggested that a particular reason for this was that Gaelic Irish had lost much land and power since the English conquest of Ireland and hence had become radical in their demands. However, there were members of both ethnicities on either side. For example, Phelim O’Neill, the Gaelic Irish instigator of the Rebellion of 1641, sided with the moderates, whereas the predominantly Old English south Wexford area rejected the peace. The Catholic clergy were also split over the issue. The real significance of the split was between those landed gentry who were prepared to compromise with the royalists as long as their lands and civil rights were guaranteed, and those who wanted to completely overturn the British presence in Ireland such as Owen Roe O’Neill. They wanted an independent Catholic Ireland, with the British settlers expelled permanently. Many of the militants were most concerned with recovering ancestral lands their families had lost in the plantations. After inconclusive skirmishing with the Confederates, Owen Roe O'Neill retreated to Ulster and did not rejoin his former comrades until Cromwell’s invasion of 1649. This infighting fatally hampered the efforts of the Confederate-royalist alliance to repel the invasion of parliamentarian New Model Army.

Cromwell’s invasion

New Model Army Oliver Cromwell invaded Ireland in 1649 to crush the new alliance of Irish Confederates and royalists. The Cromwellian conquest of Ireland was the bloodiest warfare that had ever occurred in the country and was accompanied by plague and famine. It ended in total defeat for the Irish Catholics and royalists. Most of the senior members of the Confederation spent the Cromwellian period in exile in France, with the English Royalist Court. After the Restoration, those Confederates who had promoted alliance with the Royalists found themselves in favour and recovered their lands. However, those who remained in Ireland throughout the interregnum invariably had all their land confiscated and in many cases were executed or transported to penal colonies. The pre-war Irish Catholic land-owning class was all but totally destroyed in this period. As were the institutions of the Roman Catholic Church.

Significance

Confederate Ireland was the only sustained period of Irish self government before the foundation of Irish Free State in 1922. Arguably it was also an early example of parliamentary-style government. However the Confederates ultimately failed in their objective to defend the interests of Irish Catholics. The Irish Confederate Wars and Cromwellian conquest of Ireland caused massive loss of life and ended with the confiscation of almost all Irish Catholic owned land. The end of the period cemented the British colonisation of Ireland.

Sources

- O'Siochru, Micheal, Confederate Ireland 1642-49, Four Courts Press Dublin 1999.
- Lenihan, Padraig, Confederate Catholics at War 1641-49, Cork University Press, Cork 2001.
- Ohlmeyer, Jane and Kenyon, John (ed.s), The Civil Wars, Oxford University Press, Oxford 1998.
- Canny, Nicholas, Making Ireland British 1580-1650, Oxford University Press, Oxford 2001.

External link

http://www.british-civil-wars.co.uk/glossary/confederation-kilkenny.htm

Cromwellian conquest of Ireland

Oliver Cromwell landed in Ireland with his New Model Army on behalf of the English Parliament in 1649. Since the Irish Rebellion of 1641, Ireland had been mainly under the control of the Irish Confederate Catholics, who in 1649, signed an alliance with the English Royalist party, which had been defeated in the English Civil War. Cromwell defeated the Confederate and Royalist coalition in Ireland and occupied the country - bringing to an end the Irish Confederate Wars. He passed a very harsh series of Penal laws against Catholics and confiscated almost all of their land. The Parliamentarian re-conquest of Ireland was extremely brutal, and it is alleged that many of Cromwell's actions during the re-conquest would today be called war crimes and genocide. Cromwell is still a hated figure in Ireland. However, a recent book claims that many of the actions taken by Cromwell were within the then accepted rules of war, or were exaggerated or distorted by later propagandists. Debate over his impact in Ireland is lively. genocide

The Battle of Rathmines and Cromwell’s landing in Ireland

By the end of the period known as Confederate Ireland in 1649, the only remaining Parliamentarian outpost in Ireland was in Dublin, under the command of Colonel Michael Jones. A combined Royalist and Confederate force under James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormonde gathered at Rathmines, south of Dublin, in order to take the city and deprive the Parliamentarians of a port in which they could land. Jones however launched a surprise attack on the Royalists while they were deploying on August 2, putting them to flight. Around 3000 Royalist or Confederate soldiers were killed in the subsequent rout. Oliver Cromwell called the battle, "an astonishing mercy", as it meant that he had a secure port at which he could land his army in Ireland, and that he retained the capital city. With Admiral Robert Blake blockading the remaining Royalist fleet under Prince Rupert of the Rhine in Kinsale, Cromwell landed on on August 15. Ormonde's troops retreated from around Dublin in dissaray. They were badly demoralised by their unexpected defeat at Rathmines were incapable of fighting another pitched battle in the short term. As a result, Ormonde hoped to hold the walled towns on Ireland's east coast to hold up the Cromwellian advance until the winter, when he hoped that "Colonel Hunger and Major Sickness" (i.e. hunger and disease) would deplete their ranks.

The Siege of Drogheda

Upon landing, Cromwell proceeded to take the other port cities on Ireland’s east coast, in order to secure an efficient supply of reinforcements and logistics from England. The first town to fall was Drogheda, about 50km north of Dublin. Drogheda was garrisoned by a regiment of 3000 English Royalist soldiers, commanded by Arthur Aston. When Cromwell’s men took the town by storm, the entire garrison and some civilians were massacred on Cromwell’s orders. Arthur Aston was famously beaten to death by the Roundheads with his own wooden leg. The sack of Drogheda was received with horror in Ireland, and is remembered even today as an example of Cromwell’s extreme cruelty. However, it had recently been argued (for example by Tom Reilly in Cromwell, an Honourable Enemy, Dingle 1999) that what happened at Drogheda was not unusually severe by the standards of seventeenth century siege warfare. See also: siege of Drogheda This view contradicts what has been established by a large number of modern professional historians such as Michael Burke, Peter Gaunt, John Morrill, Antonia Fraser and others. (see [http://www.historyireland.com/resources/reviews/review1.html History Ireland]) Having taken Drogheda, Cromwell sent 5000 men north under Robert Venables to take Ulster from the remnants of a Scottish Covenanter army that had landed there in 1642. The Parliamentarians were joined by an army of British settlers based around Derry, commanded by Charles Coote.

Wexford, Waterford and Duncannon

Derry The New Model Army then marched south to secure the ports of Wexford, Waterford and Duncannon. Wexford was the scene of another famous atrocity, when Cromwell’s men broke into the town during negotiations and killed around 2000 of its inhabitants. On this occasion Cromwell did not order the killings, but his officers were guilty of in-discipline, at the least, for not stopping an attack on a town which was in the process of surrendering. At worst, it has been suggested that Cromwell turned a blind eye to the massacre because he did not want to let the garrison of Wexford be evacuated to fight him again. Arguably, Cromwell's sack of Wexford was ultimately counter-productive. Firstly, the destruction of the town meant that the Parliamentarians could not use its port as a base for supplying their forces in Ireland. Secondly, because of the example set at Drogheda and Wexford, the New Model Army had a far more difficult time in taking fortified towns after this point - as garrisons feared being killed even if they surrendered. Cromwell was unable to take Waterford or Duncannon and the New Model Army had to retire to winter quarters, where many of its men died of disease – especially typhoid and dysentery. (The port towns of Waterford and Duncannon eventually surrendered after prolonged sieges in 1651).

Clonmel and the conquest of Munster

The following Spring, Cromwell mopped up the remaining walled towns in Ireland’s south east – notably the Confederate Capital of Kilkenny, which surrendered on terms. The New Model Army met its only serious reverse in Ireland at the siege of Clonmel, where its attacks on the towns walls were repulsed at a heavy cost. The town nevertheless surrendered the following day. Cromwell's behaviour at Kilkenny at Clonmel contrasted sharply with his conduct at Drogheda and Wexford. Despite the fact that his troops had suffered heavy casualties attacking the former two towns, Cromwell respected surrender terms that included guarenteeing the lives and property of the townspeople and the evacuation of armed Irish troops who were defending them. The change in attitude on the part of the Parliamentarian commander may have been a recognition that excessive cruelty was prolonging Irish resistance. Ormonde’s Royalists still held most of Munster, but were outflanked by a mutiny of their own garrison in Cork. The British Protestant troops there had been fighting for the Parliament up to 1648 and resented fighting with the Irish Confederates. Their mutiny handed Cork and most of Munster to Cromwell and they defeated the local Irish garrison at the battle of Macroom. The Irish and Royalist forces retreated behind the Shannon river into Connaught. In May 1650, Charles II repudiated his father’s (Charles I) alliance with the Irish Confederates in preference for an alliance with the Scottish Covenanters (see Treaty of Breda (1650)). This totally undermined Ormonde’s position as head of a Royalist coalition in Ireland. Cromwell published generous surrender terms for Protestant Royalists in Ireland and many of them either capitulated or went over to the Parliamentarian side. This left in the field only the remaining Irish Catholic armies and a few diehard English Royalists. From this point onwards, many Irish Catholics, including their Bishops and clergy, questioned why they should accept Ormonde's leadership when his master, the King had repudiated his alliance with them. Cromwell left Ireland in May 1650 to fight the Third English Civil War against the new Scottish-Royalist alliance. He passed his command onto Henry Ireton. Henry Ireton

Scarrifholis and the destruction of the Ulster Army

The most formidable force left to the Irish and Royalists was the 6000 strong army of Ulster, formerly commanded by Owen Roe O'Neill , who died in 1649. However the army was now commanded by an inexperienced Catholic Bishop named Heber MacMahon. The Ulster army met a Parliamentarian army composed mainly of British settlers and commanded by Charles Coote at the battle of Scarrifholis in Donegal in June 1650. The Ulster army was routed and as many as 4000 of its men were killed. In addition, MacMahon and most of the Ulster Army's officers were either killed at the battle or captured and executed after it. This eliminated the last strong field army opposing the Parliamentarians in Ireland and secured for them the northern province of Ulster. Coote's army there was now free to march south and pacify the west coast of Ireland.

The Sieges of Limerick and Galway

Parliamentarian Ormonde was discredited by the constant stream of defeats for the Irish and Royalist forces and no longer had the confidence of the men he commanded, particularly the Irish Confederates. He fled for France in December 1650 and was replaced by an Irish nobleman Ulick Burke of Clanricarde as commander. The Irish and Royalist forces were penned into the area west of the river Shannon and placed their last hope on defending the strongly walled cities of Limerick and Galway on Ireland's west coast. These cities had built extensive modern defences and could not be taken by a straightforward assault like Drogheda or Wexford. Ireton besieged Limerick while Charles Coote surrounded Galway, but they were unable to take the strongly fortified cities and instead blockaded them until a combination of hunger and disease forced them to surrender. An Irish attempt at relieving Limerick from the south was routed at the battle of Knocknaclashy. Limerick fell in 1651 and Galway the following year. Disease however killed indiscriminately and Ireton along with thousands of Parliamentarian troops, died of plague outside Limerick in 1651. See also sieges of Limerick and siege of Galway siege of Galway

Guerrilla warfare, famine and plague

The fall of Galway saw the end of organised resistance to the Cromwellian conquest, but fighting continued as small units of Irish troops launched guerrilla attacks on the Parliamentarians. These men were known as "tories" (from the Irish word toraidhe meaning, "pursued man"). They operated from difficult terrain such as the Bog of Allen, the Wicklow Mountains and the drumlin country in the north midlands. and within months, made the countryside extremely dangerous for all except large parties of Parliamentarian troops. Henry Ireton and John Hewson both mounted punitive expedition to the Wicklow mountains to try and put down the tories there, but without success. In response, the Parliamentarians destroyed food supplies and forcibly evicted civilians who were thought to helping the tories. The result was famine throughout much of Ireland, aggravated by an outbreak of Bubonic plague. As the guerrilla war ground on, the Parliamentarians designated areas such as county Wicklow as what would now be called Free-fire zones, where anyone found would be killed. In addition they began selling prisoners as slaves to the West Indies. The combination of warfare, famine and plague caused a huge mortality among the Irish population. William Petty estimated the death toll of the wars in Ireland since 1641 as over 400,000 people, or about one third of the country’s population. Eventually, the guerrilla war was ended by publishing surrender terms in 1652 allowing Irish troops to go abroad to serve in foreign armies not at war with the Commonwealth of England. Most went to France or Spain. The last Irish and Royalist forces (the remnants of the Confederate's Ulster Army) formally surrendered at Cloughoughter in Cavan in 1653. However, low-level guerrilla warfare continued for the remainder of the decade and was accompanied by widespread lawlessness and banditry.

The Cromwellian Settlement

See Also: Act for the Settlement of Ireland 1652 and Act of Settlement 1662 Cromwell imposed an extremely harsh settlement on the Irish Catholic population. This was because of his deep religious antipathy to the Catholic religion and to punish Irish Catholics for the rebellion of 1641, in particular the massacres of Protestant settlers in Ulster. Anyone implicated in the rebellion of 1641 was executed. Those who participated in Confederate Ireland had all their land confiscated and thousands were transported to the West Indies as slaves. Those Catholic landowners who had not taken part in the wars still had their land confiscated, although they were entitled to claim land in Connaught as compensation. In addition, no Catholics were allowed to live in towns. Irish soldiers who had fought in the Confederate and Royalist armies left the country in large numbers to find service in the armies of France and Spain - William Petty estimated their number at 54,000 men. The practice of Catholicism was banned and bounties were offered for priests, who were executed when found. The Long Parliament had signed the Adventurers Act in 1642, which said that the Parliament's creditors could reclaim their debts by receiving confiscated land in Ireland. In addition, Parliamentarian soldiers who served in Ireland were entitled to an allotment of confiscated land there, in lieu of their wages, which the Parliament was unable to pay in full. As a result, many thousands of New Model Army veterans were settled in Ireland. Moreover, the pre-war Protestant settlers greatly increased their ownership of land. See also: The Cromwellian Plantation Before the wars, Irish Catholics had owned 60% of the land in Ireland, whereas by the time of the English Restoration, when compensations had been made to Catholic Royalists, they owned only 20% of it. During the Commonwealth period, Catholic landownership had fallen to 8%. Also, even after the Restoration, Catholics were barred from all public office, including the Irish Parliament.

Long term results

The Cromwellian conquest completed the British colonisation of Ireland. It destroyed the native Irish Catholic land-owning classes and replaced them with colonists with a British Protestant identity. Irish Catholics did not become full citizens of the British state again until the 1830s and did not re-acquire significant land-ownership in Ireland until the late 19th century. The bitterness caused by the Cromwellian settlement was a powerful source of Irish nationalism from the seventeenth century onwards. A generation later, during the Glorious Revolution, Irish Catholics tried to reverse the Cromwellian settlement in the Williamite war in Ireland, where they fought en masse for the Jacobites. They were defeated once again.

Notes

- Tom Reilly, 1999, Cromwell: An Honourable Enemy ISBN 0863222501
- The Journal History Ireland dismissed this view "His general thesis that Cromwell may well have had no moral right to take the lives at Drogheda or Wexford 'but he certainly had the law firmly on his side' does not stand up to examination." [http://www.historyireland.com/resources/reviews/review1.html]

Main Sources

- Reilly, Tom, Cromwell, an Honourable Enemy, Dingle 1999
- Scot-Wheeler, James, Cromwell in Ireland, Dublin 1999
- Lenihan, Padraig, Confederate Catholics at War, Cork 2001.
- Ohlmeyer, Jane, Kenyon John (ed.’s) The Civil Wars, Oxford 1998.
- Canny, Nicholas P, Making Ireland British 1580-1650, Oxford 2001. Category:History of Ireland Category:English Civil War Category:Wars of the Three Kingdoms Category:Irish Confederate Wars Category:Guerrilla wars Category:Genocides Category:War crimes

First English Civil War

The First English Civil War (1642–1646) was the first of three wars, known as the English Civil War (or "Wars"). "The English Civil War" refers to the series of armed conflicts and political machinations which took place between Parliamentarians and Royalists from 1642 until 1652, and includes the Second English Civil War (1648–1649) and the Third English Civil War (1649–1651).

Overview

"The English Civil War" (1642–51), is a generic name for the civil wars in England and the Scottish Civil War, which began with the raising of Charles I's standard at Nottingham on August 22 1642, and ended at the Battle of Worcester fought on September 3 1651. There was some continued organised Royalist resistance in Scotland which lasted until the surrender of Dunottar Castle to Parliament's troops in May 1652, but this resistance is not usually included as part of the English Civil War. It is common to classify the English Civil War into three parts: :
- The First English Civil War of 1642–1646 :
- The Second English Civil War of 1648–1649 :
- The Third English Civil War of 1649–1651. During most of this time, the Irish Confederate Wars, another civil war, was raging in Ireland; it started with the Irish Rebellion of 1641, and ended with the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland. Its incidents had little or no direct connection with those of the English Civil War, but as the wars were inextricably mixed with, and formed part of a linked series of conflicts and civil wars between 1639 and 1652 in the kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland (which at that time shared a monarch, but were distinct countries in political organisation), these linked conflicts are also known as the Wars of the Three Kingdoms by some recent historians, aiming to have a unified overview, rather than treating parts of the other conflicts, as a background to the English Civil War. It is impossible rightly to understand the events of this most national of all English wars without some knowledge of the motive forces on both sides. On the side of the King were enlisted: :
- The deep-seated loyalty which was the result of two centuries of effective royal protection; :
- the pure cavalier spirit, foreshadowing the courtier era of Charles II, but still strongly tinged with the old feudal indiscipline; :
- the militarism of an expert soldier nobility, well represented by Prince Rupert; and lastly :
- a widespread mistrust of extreme Puritanism, which appeared unreasonable to the Viscount Falkland and other philosophic statesmen, and intolerable to every other class of Royalists. The foot of the Royal armies was animated, in the main, by the first and last of these motives. In the eyes of the sturdy rustics who followed their squires to the war, the enemy were rebels and fanatics. To the cavalry, which was composed largely of the higher social orders, the rebels were, in addition, bourgeois, while the soldiers of fortune from the German wars felt all the regulars' contempt for citizen militia. Thus, in the first episodes of the First Civil War, moral superiority tended to be on the side of the King. On the other side, the causes of the quarrel were primarily and apparently political, ultimately and really religious, and thus the elements of resistance in Parliament and the nation were at first confused, and, later, strong and direct. Democracy, moderate republicanism, and the simple desire for constitutional guarantees could hardly make head of themselves against the various forces of royalism, for the most moderate men of either party were sufficiently in sympathy to admit compromise. But the backbone of resistance was the Puritan element, and this waging war at first with the rest on the political issue, soon (as the Royalists anticipated) brought the religious issue to the front. The Presbyterian system, even more rigid than that of the Archbishop of Canterbury, William Laud, and the other bishops, whom no man on either side save Charles himself supported, was destined to be supplanted by the Independents, and their ideal of free conscience. But for a generation before the war broke out, the system had disciplined and trained the middle classes of the nation (who furnished the bulk of the rebel infantry, and later, of the cavalry also) to centre their will on the attainment of their ideals. The ideals changed during the struggle, but not the capacity for striving for them, and the men capable of the effort finally came to the front, and imposed their ideals on the rest by the force of their trained wills. Material force was, throughout, on the side of the Parliamentary party. They controlled the navy, the nucleus of an army which was in the process of being organised for the Irish war, and nearly all the financial resources of the country. They had the sympathies of most of the large towns, where the trained bands, drilled once a month, provided cadres for new regiments. Further, by recognising the inevitable, they gained a start in war preparations which they never lost. The Earl of Warwick, the Earl of Essex and the Earl of Manchester, and other nobles and gentry of their party, possessed great wealth and territorial influence. Charles, on the other hand, although he could by means of impressment and the Lords-Lieutenant raise men without authority from Parliament, could not raise taxes to support them. He was therefore dependent on the financial support of his chief adherents, such as the Earl of Newcastle and the Earl of Derby. Both parties raised men when and where they could, each claiming that the law was on its side, for England was already a law-abiding nation and acting in virtue of legal instruments. These were, on the side of the Parliament, its own recent "Militia Ordinance", on that of the King, the old-fashioned "Commissions of Array". In Cornwall, the Royalist leader, Sir Ralph Hopton, indicted the enemy before the grand jury of the county as disturbers of the peace, and had the posse comitatus called out to expel them. The local forces, in fact, were everywhere employed by whichever side could, by producing valid written authority, induce them to assemble.

The Royalist and Parliamentarian armies

This thread of local feeling and respect for the laws runs through the earlier operations of both sides, almost irrespective of the main principles at stake. Many a promising scheme failed because of the reluctance of the militiamen to serve beyond the limits of their own county. As the offensive lay with the King, his cause naturally suffered from this far more than that of the enemy. But the real spirit of the struggle was very different. Anything which tended to prolong the struggle, or seemed like want of energy and avoidance of a decision, was bitterly resented by the men of both sides. They had their hearts in the quarrel, and had not as yet learned by the severe lesson of Edgehill that raw armies cannot bring wars to a speedy issue. In France and Germany, the prolongation of a war meant continued employment for the soldiers, but in England: :"we never encamped or entrenched... or lay fenced with rivers or defiles. Here were no leaguers in the field, as at the story of Nuremberg, 'neither had our soldiers any tents, or what they call heavy baggage.' Twas the general maxim of the war: Where is the enemy? Let us go and fight them. Or... if the enemy was coming... Why, what should be done! Draw out into the fields and fight them." This passage from the Memoirs of a Cavalier , ascribed to Daniel Defoe, though not contemporary evidence, is an admirable summary of the character of the Civil War. Even when in the end a regular professional army developed, the original decision-compelling spirit permeated the whole organisation as was seen when pitched against regular professional continental troops the Battle of the Dunes during the Interregnum. From the first, the professional soldiers of fortune, be their advice good or bad, were looked upon with suspicion. Nearly all those Englishmen who loved war for its own sake were too closely concerned for the welfare of their country to attempt the methods of the Thirty Years' War in England. The formal organisation of both armies was based on the Swedish model, which had become the pattern of Europe after the victories of Gustavus Adolphus. It gave better scope for the morale of the individual than the old-fashioned Spanish and Dutch formations, in which the man in the ranks was a highly finished automaton.

Campaign of 1642

When the King raised his standard at Nottingham on 22 August 1642, war was already in progress on a small scale in many districts; each side endeavouring to secure, or to deny to the enemy, fortified country-houses, territory, and above all arms and money. Peace negotiations went on in the midst of these minor events, until there came from the Parliament an ultimatum, so aggressive as to fix the war-like purpose of the still vacillating court at Nottingham, and in the country at large, to convert many thousands of waverers to active Royalism. Ere long, Charles who had hitherto had fewer than 1,500 men, was at the head of an army which, though very deficient in arms and equipment, was not greatly inferior in numbers or enthusiasm to that of Parliament. The latter (20,000 strong, exclusive of detachments) was organised during July, August, and September about London, and moved from there to Northampton under the command of Lord Essex. At this moment, the military situation was as follows: the Marquess of Hertford in South Wales, Hopton in Cornwall, and the young Earl of Derby in Lancashire, and small parties in almost every county of the west and the midlands, were in arms for the King. North of the Tees, Newcastle, a great territorial magnate, was raising troops and supplies for the King, while Queen Henrietta Maria was busy in Holland, arranging for the importation of war material and money. In Yorkshire, opinion was divided, the royal cause being strongest in York and the North Riding, that of the Parliamentary party, in the clothing towns of the West Riding, and also in the important seaport of Hull. The Yorkshire gentry made an attempt to neutralise the county, but a local struggle soon began, and Newcastle thereupon prepared to invade Yorkshire. The whole of the south and east, as well as parts of the Midlands and the west, and the important towns of Bristol and Gloucester, were on the side of the Parliament. A small Royalist force was compelled to evacuate Oxford on 10 September. On 13 September, the main campaign opened. The King, in order to find recruits amongst his sympathisers and arms in the armouries of the Derbyshire and Staffordshire, trained bands and also, to be in touch with his disciplined regiments in Ireland by way of Chester, moved westward to Shrewsbury. Essex followed suit by marching his army from Northampton to Worcester. Near the last-named town, a sharp cavalry engagement, Powick Bridge, took place on 23 September between the advanced cavalry of Essex's army, and a force under Prince Rupert, which was engaged in protecting the retirement of the Oxford detachment. The result of the fight was the immediate overthrow of the Parliamentary cavalry, and this gave the Royalist troopers a confidence in themselves and in their brilliant leader, which was not destined to be shaken until they met Oliver Cromwell's Ironsides. Rupert soon withdrew to Shrewsbury, where he found many Royalist officers eager to attack Essex's new position at Worcester. But the road to London now lay open and it was decided to take it. The intention was not to avoid a battle, for the Royalist generals wanted to fight Essex before he grew too strong, and the temper of both sides made it impossible to postpone the decision. In the Earl of Clarendon's words: "it was considered more counsellable to march towards London, it being morally sure that Essex would put himself in their way". Accordingly, the army left Shrewsbury on 12 October, gaining two days' start on the enemy, and moved south-east via Bridgnorth, Birmingham, and Kenilworth. This had the desired effect. Parliament, alarmed for its own safety, sent repeated orders to Essex to find the King and bring him to battle. Alarm gave place to determination, when it was discovered that Charles was enlisting papists and seeking foreign aid. The militia of the home counties was called out. A second army under Warwick was formed round the nucleus of the London trained bands, and Essex, straining every nerve to regain touch with the enemy, reached Kineton, where he was only seven miles (eleven kilometres) from the King's headquarters at Edgecote, on 22 October.

Battle of Edgehill

Rupert promptly reported the enemy's presence, and his confidence dominated the irresolution of the King, and the caution of the Earl of Lindsey, the nominal Commander-in-Chief. Both sides had marched, widely dispersed in order to live, and the rapidity with which, having the clearer purpose, the Royalists drew together, helped considerably to neutralise Essex's superior numbers. During the morning of 23 October, the Royalists formed in battle order on the brow of Edge Hill, facing towards Kineton. Essex, experienced soldier as he was, had distrusted his own raw army too much to force a decision earlier in the month, when the King was weak; he now found Charles in a strong position with an equal force to his own 14,000, and some of his regiments were still some miles distant. But he advanced beyond Kineton, and the enemy promptly left their strong position and came down to the foot of the hill; situated as they were, they had either to fight wherever they could induce the enemy to engage, or to starve in the midst of hostile garrisons. Rupert was on the right of the King's army with the greater part of the horse; Lord Lindsey and Sir Jacob Astley in the centre with the foot, while Henry Wilmot, Earl of Rochester (with whom rode the Earl of Forth, the principal military adviser of the King) with a smaller body of cavalry, was on the left. In rear of the centre were the King and a small reserve. Essex's order was similar. Rupert charged as soon as his wing was deployed, and before the infantry of either side were ready. Taking ground to his right front and then wheeling inwards at full speed, he instantly rode down the Parliamentary horse, opposed to him. Some infantry regiments of Essex's left centre shared the same fate as their cavalry. On the other wing, Forth and Wilmot likewise swept away all that they could see of the enemy's cavalry. The undisciplined Royalists of both wings pursued the fugitives in wild disorder up to Kineton, where they were severely handled by John Hampden's infantry brigade (which was escorting the artillery and baggage of Essex's army). Rupert brought back only a few rallied squadrons to the battlefield, and in the meantime, affairs there had gone badly for the King. The right and centre of the Parliamentary foot (the left having been brought to a halt by Rupert's charge) advanced with great resolution. Being at least as ardent as, and much better armed than Lindsey's men, they engaged the latter fiercely and slowly gained ground. Only the best regiments on either side, however, maintained their order, and the decision of the infantry battle was achieved mainly by a few Parliamentary squadrons. One regiment of Essex's right wing had been the target of Wilmot's charge. The other two had been at the moment, invisible, and every Royalist troop on the ground, including the King's guards, joined in the mad ride to Kineton. This regiment, Essex's life-guard, and some troops that had rallied from the effect of Rupert's charge (amongst them, Captain Oliver Cromwell's), were the only cavalry still present. They now joined with decisive effect in the attack on the left of the royal infantry. The King's line was steadily rolled up from left to right. The Parliamentary troopers captured his guns, and regiment after regiment broke up. Charles himself stood calmly in the thick of the fight, but he had not the skill to direct it. The Royal Standard was taken and retaken; Sir Edmund Verney, the standard-bearer, was killed as was Lindsey in a separate melée. By the time that Rupert returned, both sides were incapable of further effort and disillusioned as to the prospect of ending the war at a blow, so far from settling the issue the Battle of Edgehill was to be the first of a series of pitched battles. On 24 October Essex retired, leaving Charles to claim victory and to reap its results. Banbury and Oxford were reoccupied by the Royalists, and by 28 October, Charles was marching down the Thames valley on London. Negotiations were reopened, and a peace party rapidly formed itself in London and Westminster. Yet, field fortifications sprang up around London, and when Rupert stormed and sacked Brentford on 12 November, the trained bands moved out at once and took up a position at Turnham Green, barring the King's advance. Hampden, with something of the fire and energy of his cousin, Cromwell, urged Essex to turn both flanks of the Royal army via Acton and Kingston; experienced professional soldiers, however, urged him not to trust the London men to hold their ground, while the rest manoeuvred. Hampden's advice was undoubtedly premature. A Sedan or Worcester was not within the power of the Parliamentarians of 1642. In Napoleon's words: "one only manoeuvres around a fixed point", and the city levies at that time were certainly not, vis-à-vis Rupert's cavalry, a fixed point. As a matter of fact, after a slight cannonade at Turnham Green on the 13 October, Essex's two-to-one numerical superiority of itself compelled the King to retire to Reading. Turnham Green has justly been called the "Valmy of the English Civil War"; for like the Battle of Valmy it was a victory without having to come to battle, and the tide of invasion having reached this far, ebbed and never returned.

The winter of 1642-43

In the winter, while Essex's army lay inactive at Windsor, Charles by degrees consolidated his position in the region of Oxford. The city was fortified as a redoubt for the whole area, and Reading, Wallingford, Abingdon, Brill, Banbury and Marlborough constituted a complete defensive ring which was developed by the creation of smaller posts from time to time. In the North and West, winter campaigns were actively carried on: "It is summer in Yorkshire, summer in Devon, and cold winter at Windsor", said one of Essex's critics. At the beginning of December, Newcastle crossed the River Tees, defeated Sir John Hotham, the Parliamentary commander in the North Riding. He then joined hands with the hard-pressed Royalists at York, establishing himself between that city and Pontefract. Lord Fairfax of Cameron and his son Sir Thomas Fairfax, who commanded for the Parliament in Yorkshire, had to retire to the district between Hull and Selby, and Newcastle was now free to turn his attention to the Puritan "clothing towns" of the West Riding, Leeds, Halifax and Bradford. The townsmen, however, showed a determined front. Sir Thomas Fairfax with a picked body of cavalry rode through Newcastle's lines into the West Riding to help them, and about the end of January 1643, Newcastle gave up the attempt to reduce the towns. Newcastle continued his march southward, however, and gained ground for the King as far as Newark-on-Trent, so as to be in touch with the Royalists of Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire and Leicestershire (who, especially about Newark and Ashby-de-la-Zouch, were strong enough to neutralise the local forces of Parliament), and to prepare the way for the further advance of the army of the north, when the Queen's convoy should arrive from overseas. In the west, Hopton and his friends, having obtained a true bill from the grand jury against the Parliamentary disturbers of the peace, placed themselves at the head of the county militia. They drove the rebels from Cornwall, after which they raised a small force for general service and invaded Devonshire in November 1642. Subsequently, a Parliamentary army under the Earl of Stamford was withdrawn from South Wales to engage Hopton, who had to retire into Cornwall. There, however, the Royalist general was free to employ the militia again, and thus reinforced, he won a victory over a part of Stamford's forces at the Battle of Bradock Down near Liskeard on 19 January 1643 and resumed the offensive. About the same time, Hertford, no longer opposed by Stamford, brought over the South Wales Royalists to Oxford. The fortified area around that place was widened by the capture of Cirencester on 2 February. Gloucester and Bristol were now the only important garrisons of the Roundheads in the west. In the Midlands, in spite of a Parliamentary victory won by Sir William Brereton at the Battle of Nantwich on 28 January, the Royalists of Shropshire, Staffordshire, and Leicestershire soon extended their influence through Ashby-de-la-Zouch into Nottinghamshire and joined hands with their friends at Newark. Around Chester, a new Royalist army was being formed under the Lord Byron, and all the efforts of Sir John Brereton and of Sir John Gell, the leading supporter of Parliament in Derbyshire, were required to hold their own, even before Newcastle's army was added to the list of their enemies. The Lord Brooke, who commanded for Parliament in Warwickshire and Staffordshire and was looked on by many as Essex's eventual successor, was killed in besieging Lichfield Cathedral on 2 March, and, though the cathedral soon capitulated, Gell and Brereton were severely handled in the indecisive Battle of Hopton Heath near Stafford on 19 March, and Prince Rupert, after an abortive raid on Bristol (7 March), marched rapidly northward, storming Birmingham en route, and recaptured Lichfield Cathedral. He was, however, soon recalled to Oxford to take part in the main campaign. The position of affairs for Parliament was perhaps at its worst in January. The Royalist successes of November and December, the ever-present dread of foreign intervention, and the burden of new taxation which Parliament now found itself compelled to impose, disheartened its supporters. Disorders broke out in London, and, while the more determined of the rebels began thus early to think of calling in the military assistance of the Scots, the majority were for peace on any conditions. But soon the position improved somewhat; the Earl of Stamford in the west and Brereton and Gell in the Midlands, though hard pressed, were at any rate in arms and undefeated, Newcastle had failed to conquer West Riding, and Sir William Waller, who had cleared Hampshire and Wiltshire of "malignants", entered Gloucestershire early in March, destroyed a small Royalist force at Highnam on 24 March, and secured Bristol and Gloucester for Parliament. Finally, some of Charles's own intrigues opportunely came to light. The waverers, seeing the impossibility of plain dealing with the court, rallied again to the party of resistance. The series of negotiations called by the name of the "Treaty of Oxford" closed in April, with no more result than those which had preceded Edgehill and Turnham Green. About this time too, following and improving upon the example of Newcastle in the north, Parliament ordered the formation of the celebrated "associations" or groups of counties, banded together by mutual consent for defence. The most powerful and best organised of these was that of the eastern counties (headquartered in Cambridge), where the danger of attack from the north was near enough to induce great energy in the preparations for meeting it, and at the same time, too distant effectively to interfere with these preparations. Above all, the Eastern Association was from the first, guided and inspired by Colonel Cromwell.

The Plan of Campaign, 1643

The King's plan of operations for the next campaign, which was perhaps inspired from abroad, was more elaborate than the simple "point" of 1642. The King's army, based on the fortified area around Oxford, was counted sufficient to use up Essex's forces. On either hand, therefore, in Yorkshire and in the west, the Royalist armies were to fight their way inwards towards London. After that, all three armies were to converge in London in due season, and to cut off the Essex's supplies and its sea-borne revenue, and to starve the rebellion into surrender. The condition of this threefold advance was of course that the enemy should not be able to defeat the armies in detail, i.e., that he should be fixed and held in the Thames valley; this secured, there was no purely military objection against operating in separate armies from the circumference towards the centre. It was on the rock of local feeling that the King's plan came to grief. Even after the arrival of the Queen and her convoy, Newcastle had to allow her to proceed with a small force, and to remain behind with the main body. This was because of Lancashire and the West Riding, and above all because the port of Hull, in the hands of the Fairfaxes, constituted a menace that the Royalists of the East Riding refused to ignore. Hopton's advance too, undertaken without the Cornish levies, was checked in the Battle of Sourton Down (Dartmoor) on 25 April. On the same day, Waller captured Hereford. Essex had already left Windsor to undertake the siege of Reading. Reading was the most important point in the circle of fortresses round Oxford, which after a vain attempt at relief, surrendered to him on 26 April. Thus the opening operations were unfavourable, not indeed so far as to require the scheme to be abandoned, but at least, delaying the development until the campaigning season was far advanced.

Victories of Hopton

But affairs improved in May. The Queen's long-expected convoy arrived at Woodstock on 13 May. Stamford's army, which had again entered Cornwall, was attacked in its selected position at Stratton, and practically annihilated by Hopton on 16 May. This brilliant victory was due, above all, to Sir Bevil Grenville and the lithe Cornishmen. Though they were but 2,400 against 5,400, and destitute of artillery, they stormed "Stamford Hill", killed 300 of the enemy and captured 1,700 more with all their guns, colours and baggage. Devon was at once overrun by the victors. Essex's army, for want of material resources, had had to be content with the capture of Reading. A Royalist force under Hertford and Prince Maurice von Simmern (Rupert's brother) moved out as far as Salisbury to hold out a hand to their friends in Devonshire. Waller, the only Parliamentary commander, left in the field in the west, had to abandon his conquests in the Severn valley to oppose the further progress of his intimate friend and present enemy, Hopton. Early in June, Hertford and Hopton united at Chard and rapidly moved, with some cavalry skirmishing, towards Bath, where Waller's army lay. Avoiding the barrier of the Mendips, they moved round via Frome to the Avon. But Waller, thus cut off from London and threatened with investment, acted with great skill. Some days of manoeuvres and skirmishing followed, after which Hertford and Hopton found themselves on the north side of Bath, facing Waller's entrenched position on the top of Lansdown Hill. This position, the Royalists stormed on 5 July. The battle of Lansdown was a second Stratton for the Cornishmen, but this time the enemy was of different quality and far differently led. And they had to mourn the loss of Sir Bevil Grenville and the greater part of their whole force. At dusk, both sides stood on the flat summit of the hill, still firing into one another with such energy as was not yet expended. In the night, Waller drew off his men into Bath. "We were glad they were gone", wrote a Royalist officer, "for if they had not, I know who had within the hour." Next day, Hopton was severely injured by the explosion of a wagon containing the reserve ammunition. The Royalists, finding their victory profitless, moved eastward to Devizes, closely followed by the enemy. On 10 July, Sir William Waller took post on Roundway Down, overlooking Devizes, and captured a Royalist ammunition column from Oxford. On 11 July he came down and invested Hopton's foot in Devizes itself. The Royalist cavalry, Hertford and Maurice with them, rode away towards Salisbury. But although the siege of Devizes was pressed with such vigour that an assault was fixed for the evening of 13 July, the Cornishmen, Hopton directing the defence from his bed, held out stubbornly. On the afternoon of 13 July, Prince Maurice's horsemen appeared on Roundway Down, having ridden to Oxford, picked up reinforcements there, and returned at full speed to save their comrades. Waller's army tried its best, but some of its elements were of doubtful quality and the ground was all in Maurice's favour. The battle did not last long. The combined attack of the Oxford force from Roundway and of Hopton's men from the town practically annihilated Waller's army. Very soon afterwards, Rupert came up with fresh Royalist forces, and the combined armies moved westward. Bristol, the second port of the kingdom, was their objective. On 26 July, four days from the opening of the siege, it was in their hands. Waller, with the beaten remnant of his army at Bath, was powerless to intervene. The effect of this blow was felt even in Dorset. Within three weeks of the surrender, Maurice, with a body of fast-moving cavalry, overran that county almost unopposed.

Adwalton Moor

Newcastle, meanwhile, had resumed operations against the clothing towns, this time with success. The Fairfaxes had been fighting in the West Riding since January, with such troops from the Hull region as they had been able to bring across Newcastle's lines. They, together with the townsmen, were too weak for Newcastle's increasing forces. An attempt was made to relieve them by bringing up the Parliament's forces in Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, Lincolnshire and the Eastern Association. But local interests prevailed again, in spite of Cromwell's presence. After assembling at Nottingham, the Midland rebels quietly dispersed to their several counties on 2 June. The Fairfaxes were left to their fate. At about the same time, Hull itself narrowly escaped capture by the Queen's forces through the treachery of Sir John Hotham, the governor, and his son, the commander of the Lincolnshire Parliamentarians. The latter had been placed under arrest at the instance of Cromwell and of Colonel John Hutchinson, the governor of Nottingham Castle; he escaped to Hull, but both father and son were seized by the citizens and afterwards executed. More serious than an isolated act of treachery was the far-reaching Royalist plot, that had been detected in Parliament itself for complicity, in which Lord Conway, Edmund Wailer the poet, and several members of both Houses were arrested. The safety of Hull was of no avail for the West Riding towns, and the Fairfaxes underwent a decisive defeat at Adwalton Battle of Adwalton (Atherton) Moor near Bradford on the 30 June. After this, by way of Lincolnshire, they escaped to Hull and reorganised the defence of that place. The West Riding perforce submitted. The Queen herself, with a second convoy and a small army under Lord Henry Jermyn, soon moved via Newark, Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Lichfield and other Royalist garrisons to Oxford, where she joined her husband on the 14 July. But Newcastle (now the Marquess of Newcastle) was not yet ready for his part in the programme. The Yorkshire troops would not march on London while the enemy was master of Hull. By this time, there was a solid barrier between the royal army of the north and the capital. Roundway Down and Adwalton Moor were not, after all, destined to be fatal, though peace riots in London, dissensions in the Houses, and quarrels amongst the generals were their immediate consequences. A new factor had arisen in the war — the Eastern Association.

Cromwell and the Eastern Association

This had already intervened to help in the siege of Reading and had sent troops to the abortive gathering at Nottingham, besides clearing its own ground of "malignants." From the first Cromwell was the dominant influence. Fresh from Edgehill, he had told Hampden: "You must get men of a spirit that is likely to go as far as gentlemen will go", not "old decayed serving-men, tapsters and such kind of fellows to encounter gentlemen that have honour and courage and resolution in them". In January 1643, he had gone to his own county to "raise such men as had the fear of God before them, and made some conscience of what they did". These men, once found, were willing, for the cause, to submit to a rigorous training and an iron discipline such as other troops, fighting for honour only or for profit only, could not be brought to endure. The result was soon apparent. As early as 13 May, Cromwell's regiment of horse, recruited from the horse-loving yeomen of the eastern counties, demonstrated its superiority in the field, in a skirmish near Grantham. In the irregular fighting in Lincolnshire, during June and July (which was on the whole unfavourable to the Parliament), as previously in pacifying the Eastern Association itself, these Puritan troopers distinguished themselves by long and rapid marches that may bear comparison with almost any in the history of the mounted arm. When Cromwell's second opportunity came at Gainsborough on 28 July, the "Lincolneer" horse who were under his orders were fired by the example of Cromwell's own regiment. Cromwell, directing the whole with skill, and above all with energy, utterly routed the Royalist horse and killed their general, Charles Cavendish. In the meantime the army of Essex had been inactive. After the fall of Reading, a serious epidemic of sickness had reduced it to impotence. On 18 June, the Parliamentary cavalry was routed, and John Hampden mortally wounded at Chalgrove Field near Chiselhampton. When at last Essex, having obtained the desired reinforcements, moved against Oxford from the Aylesbury side, he found his men demoralised by inaction. Before the menace of Rupert's cavalry, to which he had nothing to oppose, Essex withdrew to Bedfordshire in July. He made no attempt to intercept the march of the Queen's convoys, permitting the Oxford army, which he should have held fast, to intervene effectually in the Midlands, the west, and the south-west. Waller might well complain that Essex, who still held Reading and the Chilterns, had given him neither active nor passive support in the critical days, preceding Roundway Down. Still, only a few voices were raised to demand his removal, and he was shortly to have an opportunity of proving his skill and devotion in a great campaign and a great battle. The centre and the right of the three Royalist armies had for a moment (Roundway to Bristol) united to crush Waller, but their concentration was short-lived. Plymouth was to Hopton's men, what Hull was to Newcastle's. They would not march on London until the menace to their homes was removed. Further, there were dissensions among the generals, which Charles was too weak to crush. Consequently, the original plan reappeared: The main Royalist army was to operate in the centre, Hopton's (now Maurice's) on the right, Newcastle on the left towards London. While waiting for the fall of Hull and Plymouth, Charles naturally decided to make the best use of his time by reducing Gloucester, the one great fortress of Parliament in the west.

Siege and relief of Gloucester

This decision quickly brought on a crisis. While the Earl of Manchester (with Cromwell as his lieutenant-general) was appointed to head the forces of the Eastern Association against Newcastle, and Waller was given a new army wherewith again to engage Hopton and Maurice, the task of saving Gloucester from the King's army fell to Essex. Essex was heavily reinforced and drew his army together for action in the last days of August. Resort was had to the press-gang to fill the ranks, and recruiting for Waller's new army was stopped. London sent six regiments of trained bands to the front, closing the shops so that every man should be free to take his part in what was thought to be the supreme trial of strength. On the 26 August, all being ready, Essex started. Through Aylesbury and round the north side of Oxford to Stow-on-the-Wold, the army moved resolutely, not deterred by want of food and rest, or by the attacks of Rupert's and Wilmot's horse on its flank. On 5 September, just as Gloucester was at the end of its resources, the siege of Gloucester was suddenly raised. The Royalists drew off to Painswick, for Essex had reached Cheltenham and the danger was over; the field armies, being again face to face, and free to move. There followed a series of skilful manoeuvres in the Severn and Avon valleys. At the end, the Parliamentary army gained a long start on its homeward road via Cricklade, Hungerford and Reading. But the Royalist cavalry under Rupert, followed rapidly by Charles and the main body from Evesham, strained every nerve to head off Essex at Newbury. After a sharp skirmish on Aldbourne Chase on 18 September, they succeeded. On the 19th, the whole Royal army was drawn up, facing west, with its right on Newbury, and its left on Enborne Heath. Essex's men knew that evening that they would have to break through by force, there being no suggestion of surrender.

First Battle of Newbury, September 20, 1643

The ground was densely intersected by hedges, except in front of the Royalists' left centre (Newbury Wash) and left (Enborne Heath). Practically, Essex's army was never formed in line of battle, for each unit was thrown into the fight as it came up its own road or lane. On the left wing, in spite of the Royalist counter-strokes, the attack had the best of it, capturing field after field, and thus gradually gaining ground to the front. Here, Viscount Falkland was killed. On the Reading road itself Essex did not succeed in deploying on to the open ground on Newbury Wash, but victoriously repelled the royal horse when it charged up to the lanes and hedges held by his foot. On the extreme right of the Parliamentary army, which stood in the open ground of Enborne Heath, took place a famous incident. Here, two of the London regiments, fresh to war as they were, were exposed to a trial as severe as that which broke down the veteran Spanish infantry at Rocroi in this same year. Rupert and the Royalist horse, again and again, charged up to the squares of pikes. Between each charge, his guns tried to disorder the Londoners, but it was not until the advance of the royal infantry that the trained bands retired, slowly and in magnificent order, to the edge of the heath. The result was that Essex's army had fought its hardest, and failed to break the opposing line. But the Royalists had suffered so heavily, and above all, the valour displayed by the Parliamentarians had so profoundly impressed them, that they were glad to give up the disputed road, and withdraw into Newbury. Essex thereupon pursued his march. Reading was reached on 22 September after a small rearguard skirmish at Aldermaston, and so ended the First Battle of Newbury, one of the most dramatic episodes of English history.

Hull and Winceby

Meanwhile the siege of Hull had commenced. The Eastern Association forces under Manchester promptly moved up into Lincolnshire, the foot besieging Lynn (which surrendered on 16 September) while the horse rode into the northern part of the county to give a hand to the Fairfaxes. Fortunately the sea communications of Hull were open. On 18 September, part of the cavalry in Hull was ferried over to Barton, and the rest under Sir Thomas Fairfax went by sea to Saltfleet a few days later, the whole joining Cromwell near Spilsby. In return, the old Lord Fairfax, who remained in Hull, received infantry reinforcements and a quantity of ammunition and stores from the Eastern Association. On 11 October, Cromwell and Fairfax together won a brilliant cavalry action at the Battle of Winceby, driving the Royalist horse in confusion before them to Newark. On the same day, Newcastle's army around Hull, which had suffered terribly from the hardships of continuous siege work, was attacked by the garrison. They were so severely handled that the siege was given up the next day. Later, Manchester retook Lincoln and Gainsborough. Thus Lincolnshire, which had been almost entirely in Newcastle's hands before he was compelled to undertake the siege of Hull, was added, in fact as well as in name, to the Eastern Association. Elsewhere, in the reaction after the crisis of Newbury, the war languished. The city regiments went home, leaving Essex too weak to hold Reading. The Royalists reoccupied it on 3 October. At this, the Londoners offered to serve again. They actually took part in a minor campaign around Newport Pagnell, where Rupert was attempting to fortify, as a menace to the Eastern Association and its communications with London. Essex was successful in preventing this, but his London regiments again went home. Sir William Waller's new army in Hampshire failed lamentably in an attempt on Basing House on 7 November, the London-trained bands, deserting en bloc . Shortly afterwards, on the 9th of December, Arundel surrendered to a force under Sir Ralph, now Lord Hopton.

The "Irish Cessation" and the Solemn League and Covenant

Politically, these months were the turning-point of the war. In Ireland, the King's lieutenant, by order of his master, made a truce with the Irish rebels on 15 September. Charles's chief object was to set free his army to fight in England, but it was universally believed that Irish regiments in plain words, papists in arms, would shortly follow. Under these circumstances, his act united against him nearly every class in Protestant England, and brought into the English quarrel the armed strength of Presbyterian Scotland. Yet Charles, still trusting to intrigue and diplomacy to keep Scotland in check, deliberately rejected the advice of Montrose, his greatest and most faithful lieutenant, who wished to give the Scots employment for their army at home. Only ten days after the "Irish Cessation," Parliament at Westminster swore to the Solemn League and Covenant, and the die was cast. It is true that even a semblance of Presbyterian theocracy put the "Independents" on their guard, and definitely raised the question of freedom of conscience. Secret negotiations were opened between the Independents and Charles on that basis. However, they soon discovered that the King was merely using them as instruments to bring about the betrayal of Aylesbury and other small rebel posts. All parties found it convenient to interpret the Covenant liberally for the present. At the beginning of 1644, the Parliamentary party showed so united a front that even Pym's death, on 8 December 1643, hardly affected its resolution to continue the struggle. The troops from Ireland, thus obtained at the cost of an enormous political blunder, proved to be untrustworthy after all. Those serving in Hopton's army were "mutinous and shrewdly infected with the rebellious humour of England". When Waller's Londoners surprised and routed a Royalist detachment at Alton on the 13 December 1643, half the prisoners took the Covenant. Hopton had to retire, and on 6 January 1644, Waller recaptured Arundel. Byron's Cheshire army was in no better case. Newcastle's retreat from Hull and the loss of Gainsborough had completely changed the situation in the midlands. Brereton was joined by the younger Fairfax from Lincolnshire, and the Royalists were severely defeated for a second time at Nantwich on 25 January. As at Alton, the majority of the prisoners (amongst them, Colonel George Monck) took the Covenant and entered the Parliamentary army. In Lancashire, as in Cheshire, Staffordshire, Nottinghamshire, and Lincolnshire, the cause of Parliament was in the ascendant. Resistance revived in the West Riding towns, Lord Fairfax was again in the field in the East Riding, and even Newark was closely besieged by Sir John Meldrum. More important news came in from the north. The advanced guard of the Scottish army had passed the Tweed on 19 January, and Newcastle, with the remnant of his army, would soon be attacked in front and rear at once.

Newark and Cheriton (March 1644)

As in 1643, Rupert was soon on his way to the north to retrieve the fortunes of his side. Moving by the Welsh border, and gathering up garrisons and recruits snowball-wise as he marched, he went first to Cheshire to give a hand to Byron, and then, with the utmost speed, he made for Newark. On 20 March 1644, he bivouacked at Bingham, and on the 21st, he not only relieved Newark but routed the besiegers' cavalry. On the 22nd, Meldrum's position was so hopeless that he capitulated on terms. But, brilliant soldier as he was, the prince was unable to do more than raid a few Parliamentary posts around Lincoln. After that, he had to return his borrowed forces to their various garrisons, and go back to Walesladen, indeed with captured pikes and muskets, to raise a permanent field army. But Rupert could not be in all places at once. Newcastle was clamorous for aid. In Lancashire, only the countess of Derby, in Lathom House, held out for the King. Her husband pressed Rupert to go to her relief. Once, too, the prince was ordered back to Oxford to furnish a travelling escort for the queen, who shortly after this, gave birth to her youngest child and returned to France. The order was countermanded within a few hours, it is true, but Charles had good reason for avoiding detachments from his own army. On 29 March, Hopton had undergone a severe defeat at Cheriton, near New Alresford. In the preliminary manoeuvres, and in the opening stages of the battle, the advantage lay with the Royalists. The Earl of Forth, who was present, was satisfied with what had been achieved, and tried to break off the action. But Royalist indiscipline ruined everything. A young cavalry colonel, charged in defiance of orders. A fresh engagement opened, and at the last moment, Waller snatched a victory out of defeat. Worse than this was the news from Yorkshire and Scotland. Charles had at last assented to Montrose's plan and promised him a marquessate. The first attempt to raise the Royalist standard in Scotland, however, gave no omen of its later triumphs. In Yorkshire, Sir Thomas Fairfax, advancing from Lancashire through the West Riding, joined his father. Selby was stormed on 11 April and thereupon, Newcastle, who had been manoeuvring against the Scots in Durham, hastily drew back. He sent his cavalry away, and shut himself up with his foot in York. Two days later, the Scottish general, Alexander Leslie, Lord Leven, joined the Fairfaxes and prepared to invest that city.

Plans of campaign for 1644

The original plan of the Parliamentary "Committee of Both Kingdoms", which directed the military and civil policy of the allies after the fashion of a modern cabinet, was to combine Essex's and Manchester's armies in an attack upon the King's army. Ay

Second English Civil War

The Second English Civil War (1648–1649) was the second of three wars known as the English Civil War (or Wars) which refers to the series of armed conflicts and political machinations which took place between Parliamentarians and Royalists from 1642 until 1652 and include the First English Civil War (1642–1646) and the Third English Civil War (1649–1651)

Overview

The close of the First Civil War left England and Scotland in the hands potentially of any one of the four parties or any combination of two or more that should prove strong enough to dominate the rest. Armed political Royalism was indeed at an end, but King Charles I, though practically a prisoner, considered himself and was, almost to the last, considered by the rest as necessary to ensure the success of whichever amongst the other three parties could come to terms with him. Thus he passed successively into the hands of the Scots, the Parliament and the New Model Army (henceforward called the Army), trying to reverse the verdict of arms by coquetting with each in turn. The Presbyterians and the Scots, after Cornet George Joyce of Thomas Fairfax's horse seized upon the person of the King for the Army (June 3, 1647), began at once to prepare for a fresh civil war, this time against Independency, as embodied in the Army and after making use of its sword, its opponents attempted to disband it, to send it on foreign service, to cut off its arrears of pay, with the result that it was exasperated beyond control, and, remembering not merely its grievances but also the principle for which it had fought, soon became the most powerful political party in the realm. From 1646 to 1648 the breach between Army and Parliament widened day by day until finally the Presbyterian party, combined with the Scots and the remaining Royalists, felt itself strong enough to begin a second civil war.

The English War

In February 1648 Colonel John Poyer, the Parliamentary Governor of Pembroke Castle, refused to hand over his command to one of Fairfax's officers, and he was soon joined by some hundreds of officers and men, who mutinied, ostensibly for arrears of pay, but really with political objects. At the end of March, encouraged by minor successes, Poyer openly declared for the King. Disbanded soldiers continued to join him in April, all South Wales revolted, and eventually he was joined by Major-General Rowland Laugharne, his district commander, and Colonel Rice Powel. In April also news came that the Scots were arming and that Berwick and Carlisle had been seized by the English Royalists. Oliver Cromwell was at once sent off at the head of a strong detachment to deal with Laugharne and Poyer. But before he arrived Laugharne had been severely defeated by Colonel Thomas Horton at the Battle of St. Fagans (May 8). The English Presbyterians found it difficult to reconcile their principles with their allies when it appeared that the prisoners taken at St Fagans bore "We long to see our King" on their hats; very soon in fact the English war became almost purely a Royalist revolt, and the war in the north an attempt to enforce a mixture of Royalism and Presbyterianism on Englishmen by means of a Scottish army. The former were disturbers of the peace and no more. Nearly all the Royalists who had fought in the First Civil War had given their parole not to bear arms against the Parliament, and many honourable Royalists, foremost amongst them the old Lord Astley, who had fought the last battle for the King in 1646, refused to break their word by taking any part in the second war. Those who did so, and by implication those who abetted them in doing so, were likely to be treated with the utmost rigour if captured, for the Army was in a less placable mood in 1648 than in 1645, and had already determined to "call Charles Stuart, that man of blood, to an account for the blood he had shed." On May 21, Kent rose in revolt in the King's name. A few days later a most serious blow to the Independents was struck by the defection of the Navy, from command of which they had removed Vice-Admiral William Batten, as being a Presbyterian. Though a former Lord High Admiral, the Earl of Warwick, also a Presbyterian, was brought back to the service, it was not long before the Navy made a purely Royalist declaration and placed itself under the command of the prince of Wales. But Fairfax had a clearer view and a clearer purpose than the distracted Parliament. He moved quickly into Kent, and on the evening of June 1, stormed Maidstone by open force, after which the local levies dispersed to their homes, and the more determined Royalists, after a futile attempt to induce the City of London to declare for them, fled into Essex. In Cornwall, Northamptonshire, North Wales and Lincolnshire the revolt collapsed as easily. Only in South Wales, Essex and the north of England was there serious fighting. In the first of these districts Cromwell rapidly reduced all the fortresses except Pembroke, where Laugharne; Poyer and Powel held out with the desperate courage of deserters. In the north, Pontefract was surprised by the Royalists, and shortly afterwards Scarborough Castle declared for the king. Fairfax, after his success at Maidstone and the pacification of Kent, turned northward to reduce Essex, where, under their ardent, experienced and popular leader Sir Charles Lucas, the Royalists were in arms in great numbers. He soon drove the enemy into Colchester, but the first attack on the town was repulsed and he had to settle down to a long and wearisome siege. A Surrey rising, remembered only for the death of the young and gallant Lord Francis Villiers in a skirmish at Kingston (July 7), collapsed almost as soon as it had gathered force, and its leaders, the duke of Buckingham and the earl of Holland, escaped, after another attempt to induce London to declare for them, to St Albans and St Neots, where Holland was taken prisoner. Buckingham escaped overseas.

Lambert in the North

By July 10, 1648, therefore the military situation was well defined. Cromwell held Pembroke, Fairfax Colchester, Lambert Pontefract under siege; elsewhere all serious local risings had collapsed, and the Scottish army had crossed the Border. It is on the adventures of the latter that the interest of the war centres. It was by no means the veteran army of the Earl of Leven, which had long been disbanded. For the most part it consisted of raw levies, and as the kirk had refused to sanction the enterprise of the Scottish Parliament, David Leslie and thousands of experienced officers and men declined to serve. The Duke of Hamilton proved to be a poor substitute for Leslie; his army, too, was so ill provided that as soon as England was invaded it began to plunder the countryside for the bare means of sustenance. Major-General John Lambert, a brilliant young general of twenty-nine, was more than equal to the situation. He had already left the sieges of Pontefract Castle and Scarborough Castle to Colonel Edward Rossiter, and hurried into Cumberland to deal with the English Royalists under Sir Marmaduke Langdale. With his cavalry he got into touch with the enemy about Carlisle and slowly fell back, fighting small rearguard actions to annoy the enemy and gain time, to Bowes and Barnard Castle. Langdale did not follow him into the mountains, but occupied himself in gathering recruits and supplies of material and food for the Scots. Lambert, reinforced from the midlands, reappeared early in June and drove him back to Carlisle with his work half finished. About the same time the local horse of Durham and Northumberland were put into the field by Sir Arthur Hesilrige, governor of Newcastle, and under the command of Colonel Robert Lilburne won a considerable success (June 30) at the River Coquet. This reverse, coupled with the existence of Langdale's force on the Cumberland side, practically compelled Hamilton to choose the west coast route for his advance, and his army began slowly to move down the long couloir between the mountains and the sea. The campaign which followed is one of the most brilliant in English history.

Campaign of Preston

On July 8, 1648, the Scots, with Langdale as advanced guard, were about Carlisle, and reinforcements from Ulster were expected daily. Lambert's horse were at Penrith, Hexham and Newcastle, too weak to fight and having only skilful leading and rapidity of movement to enable them to gain time. Far away to the south Cromwell was still tied down before Pembroke, Fairfax before Colchester. Elsewhere the rebellion, which had been put down by rapidity of action rather than sheer weight of numbers, smouldered, and Charles, the Prince of Wales, with the fleet cruised along the Essex coast. Cromwell and Lambert, however, understood each other perfectly, while the Scottish commanders quarrelled with Langdale and each other. Appleby Castle surrendered to the Scots on July 31, whereat Lambert, who was still hanging on to the flank of the Scottish advance, fell back from Barnard Castle to Richmond so as to close Wensleydale against any attempt of the invaders to march on Pontefract. All the restless energy of Langdale's horse was unable to dislodge him from the passes or to find out what was behind that impenetrable cavalry screen. The crisis was now at hand. Cromwell had received the surrender of Pembroke on July 11, and had marched off, with his men unpaid, ragged and shoeless, at full speed through the midlands. Rains and storms delayed his march, but he knew that the Duke of Hamilton in the broken ground of Westmorland was still worse off. Shoes from Northampton and stockings from Coventry met him, at Nottingham, and, gathering up the local levies as he went, he made for Doncaster, where he arrived on August 8, having gained six days in advance of the time he had allowed himself for the march. He then called up artillery from Hull, exchanged his local levies for the regulars who were besieging Pontefract, and set off to meet Lambert. On August 12 he was at Wetherby, Lambert with horse and foot at Otley, Langdale at Skipton and Gargrave, Hamilton at Lancaster, and Sir George Monro with the Scots from Ulster and the Carlisle Royalists (organized as a separate command owing to friction between Monro and the generals of the main army) at Hornby. On August 13, while Cromwell was marching to join Lambert at Otley, the Scottish leaders were still disputing as to whether they should make for Pontefract or continue through Lancashire so as to join Lord Byron and the Cheshire Royalists.

Preston Fight

On August 14, 1648 Cromwell and Lambert were at Skipton, on August 15 at Gisburn, and on the 16th they marched down the valley of the Ribble towards Preston with full knowledge of the enemy's dispositions and full determination to attack him. They had with them horse and foot not only of the Army, but also of the militia of Yorkshire, Durham, Northumberland and Lancashire, and withal were heavily outnumbered, having only 8,600 men against perhaps 20,000 of Hamilton's command. But the latter were scattered for convenience of supply along the road from Lancaster, through Preston, towards Wigan, Langdale's corps having thus become the left flank guard instead of the advanced guard. Langdale called in his advanced parties, perhaps with a view to resuming the duties of advanced guard, on the night of August 13, and collected them near Longridge. It is not clear whether he reported Cromwell's advance, but, if he did, Hamilton ignored the report, for on the 17th Monro was half a day's march to the north, Langdale east of Preston, and the main army strung out on the Wigan road, Major-General William Baillie with a body of foot, the rear of the column, being still in Preston. Hamilton, yielding to the importunity of his lieutenant-general, the Earl of Callendar, sent Baillie across the Ribble to follow the main body just as Langdale, with 3,000 foot and 500 horse only, met the first shock of Cromwell's attack on Preston Moor. Hamilton, like Charles at Edgehill, passively shared in, without directing, the Battle of Preston, and, though Langdale's men fought magnificently, they were after four hours' struggle driven to the Ribble. Baillie attempted to cover the Ribble and Darwen bridges on the Wigan road, but Cromwell had forced his way across both before nightfall. Pursuit was at once undertaken, and not relaxed until Hamilton had been driven through Wigan and Winwick to Uttoxeter and Ashbourne. There, pressed furiously in rear by Cromwell's horse and held up in front by the militia of the midlands, the remnant of the Scottish army laid down its arms on August 25. Various attempts were made to raise the Royalist standard in Wales and elsewhere, but Preston was the death-blow. On August 28, starving and hopeless of relief, the Colchester Royalists surrendered to Lord Fairfax.

Execution of Charles I

The victors in the Second Civil War were not merciful to those who had brought war into the land again. On the evening of the surrender of Colchester, Sir Charles Lucas and Sir George Lisle were shot. Laugharne, Poyer and Powel were sentenced to death, but Poyer alone was executed on April 25 1649, being the victim selected by lot. Of five prominent Royalist peers who had fallen into the hands of Parliament, three, the Duke of Hamilton, the Earl of Holland, and Lord Capel, one of the Colchester prisoners and a man of high character, were beheaded at Westminster on March 9. Above all, after long hesitations, even after renewal of negotiations, the Army and the Independents conducted "Pride's Purge" of the House removing their ill-wishers, and created a court for the trial and sentence of King Charles I. The more resolute of the 59 commissioners (judges) nerved the rest to sign the death-warrant, and Charles was beheaded at Whitehall on January 30, 1649.

References

based on the article GREAT REBELLION. Category:English Civil War Category:Wars of the Three Kingdoms

Third English Civil War

The Third English Civil War (1649–1651) was the third of three wars known as the English Civil War (or Wars) which refers to the series of armed conflicts and political machinations which took place between Parliamentarians and Royalists from 1642 until 1652 and include the First English Civil War (1642–1646) and the Second English Civil War (1648–1649) and

Overview

The Preston campaign of the Second Civil War was undertaken under the direction of the Scottish Parliament, not the Church, and it needed the execution of King Charles I to bring about a union of all Scottish parties against the English Independents. Even so, Charles II. in exile had to submit to long negotiations and hard conditions before he was allowed to put himself at the head of the Scottish armies. The Marquess of Huntly was executed for taking up arms for the king on March 22 1649. Marquess of Montrose, under Charles's directions, made a last attempt to rally the Scottish Royalists early in 1650. But Charles merely used Montrose as a threat to obtain better conditions for himself from the Covenanters, and when the noblest of all the Royalists was defeated at the Battle of Carbisdale (April 27), delivered up to his pursuers (May 4), and executed (May 21, 1650), he was not ashamed to give way to the demands of the Covenanters, and to place himself at the head of Montrose's executioners. His father, whatever his faults, had at least chosen to die for an ideal, the Church of England. Charles II. now proposed to regain the throne by allowing Scotland to impose Presbyterianism on England, and dismissed all the faithful Cavaliers who had followed him to exile.

Cromwell in Ireland

:See also the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland. Ireland had been at war since the rebellion of 1641, with most of the island being controlled by the Irish Confederates. In 1648, in the wake of Charles I's arrest, and the growing threat to them from the armies of the English Parliament, the Confederates signed a treaty of alliance with the English Royalists. The joint Royalist and Confederate forces under Ormonde attempted to eliminate the Parliamentary army holding Dublin, but were routed at the battle of Rathmines by a Parlimentary army commanded by Colonel Michael Jones. As the former Member of Parliament Admiral Robert Blake blockaded Prince Rupert of the Rhine's fleet in Kinsale, Oliver Cromwell was able to land at Dublin on August 15, 1649 with the army to quell Royalist alliance in Ireland. The alliance, which was a compromise that gave command of the Irish Confederate forces to the English Royalists, was very shaky from the start, with many Confederates unhappy with the leadership of Ormonde. Indeed the Confederates had fought a mini civil war among themselves in 1648 over this alliance, with Owen Roe O'Neill's Ulster army leaving the Confederation and only re-joining it after Cromwell had actually landed in Ireland. Partly as a result of this disunity, Ireland was thoroughly reduced to order by Cromwell, who beat down all resistance by his skill, and even more by his ruthless severity, in a brief campaign of nine months (storming of Drogheda, September 11, and of Wexford, October 11, by Cromwell; capture of the Irish Confererate capital Kilkenny, March 28, 1650, and of Clonmel, May 10). Cromwell returned to England at the end of May 1650, and on June 26 Fairfax, who had been anxious and uneasy since the execution of the king, resigned the command-in-chief of the army to his lieutenant-general. The pretext, rather than the reason, of Fairfax's resignation was his unwillingness to lead an English army to reduce Scotland.

The Invasion of Scotland

This important step had been resolved upon as soon as it was clear that Charles II. would come to terms with the Covenanters. From this point the Third Civil War became a war of England against Scotland. Here at least the Independents carried the whole of England with them. Few Englishman cared to accept a settlement at the hands of a victorious foreign army, and on June 28, five days after Charles II. had sworn to the Covenant, the newly appointed lord-general Oliver Cromwell was on his way to the Border to take command of the English army. About the same time a new militia act was passed that was destined to give full and decisive effect to the national spirit of England in the great final campaign of the war. Meanwhile the motto frappez fort, frappez vite was carried out at once by the regular forces. On July 19 1650 Cromwell made the final arrangements at Berwick-on-Tweed. Major-General Thomas Harrison, a gallant soldier and an extreme Independent, a Fifth Monarchist, was to command the regular and auxiliary forces left in England, and to secure the Commonwealth against Royalists and Presbyterians. Cromwell took with him Charles Fleetwood as lieutenant-general and John Lambert as major-general, and his forces numbered about 10,000 foot and 5,000 horse. His opponent David Leslie (his comrade of Marston Moor) had a much larger force, but its degree of training was inferior, it was more than tainted by the political dissensions of the people at large, and it was, in great part at any rate, raised by forced enlistment. On July 22 Cromwell crossed the river Tweed. He marched on Edinburgh by the sea coast, through Dunbar, Haddington and Musselburgh, living almost entirely on supplies landed by the fleet which accompanied him, for the country itself was incapable of supporting even a small army, and on the July 29, he found Leslie's army drawn up and entrenched in a position extending from Leith to Edinburgh.

Operations around Edinburgh

The same day a sharp but indecisive fight took place on the lower slopes of Arthur's Seat, after which Cromwell, having felt the strength of Leslie's line, drew back to Musselburgh. Leslie's horse followed him up sharply, and another action was fought, after which the Scots assaulted Musselburgh without success. Militarily Leslie had the best of it in these affairs, but it was precisely this moment that the Kirk party chose to institute a searching three days' examination of the political and religious sentiments of his army. The result was that the army was "purged" of 80 officers and 3000 soldiers as it lay within musket shot of the enemy. Cromwell was more concerned, however, with the supply question than with the distracted army of the Scots. On August 6, he had to fall back as far as Dunbar to enable the fleet to land supplies in safety, the port of Musselburgh being unsafe in the violent and stormy weather which prevailed. He soon returned to Musselburgh and prepared to force Leslie to battle. In preparation for an extended manoeuvre three days' rations were served out. Tents were also issued, perhaps for the first time in the civil wars, for it was a regular professional army, which had to be cared for, made comfortable and economized, that was now carrying on the work of the volunteers of the first war. Even after Cromwell started on his manoeuvre, the Scottish army was still in the midst of its political troubles, and, certain though he was that nothing but victory in the field would give an assured peace, he was obliged to intervene in the confused negotiations of the various Scottish parties. At last, however, Charles II. made a show of agreeing to the demands of his strange supporters, and Leslie was free to move. Cromwell had now entered the hill country, with a view to occupying Queensferry and thus blocking up Edinburgh. Leslie had the shorter road and barred the way at Corstorphine Hill (August 21). Cromwell, though now far from his base, manoeuvred again to his right, Leslie meeting him once more at Gogar (August 27). The Scottish lines at that point were strong enough to dismay even Cromwell, and the manoeuvre on Queensferry was at last given up. It had cost the English army severe losses in sick, and much suffering in the autumn nights on the bleak hillsides.

Dunbar

On the August 28, Cromwell fell back on Musselburgh, and on August 31, after embarking his non-effective men, to Dunbar. Leslie followed him up, and wished to fight a battle at Dunbar on Sunday, the 1st of September. But again the kirk intervened, this time to forbid Leslie to break the Sabbath, and the unfortunate Scottish commander could only establish himself on Doon Hill, near Dunbar, and send a force to Cockburnspath to bar the Berwick road. He had now 23,000 men to Cromwell's 11,000, and proposed, faute de mieux, to starve Cromwell into surrender. But the English army was composed of "ragged soldiers with bright muskets," and had a great captain of undisputed authority at their head. Leslie's, on the other hand, had lost such discipline as it had ever possessed, and was now, under outside influences, thoroughly disintegrated. Cromwell wrote home, indeed, that he was "upon an engagement very difficult," but, desperate as his position seemed, he felt the pulse of his opponent and steadily refused to take his army away by sea. He had not to wait long. It was now the turn of Leslie's men on the hillside to endure patiently privation and exposure, and after one night's bivouac, Leslie, too readily inferring that the enemy was about to escape by sea, came down to fight. The Battle of Dunbar opened in the early morning of September 3. It was the most brilliant of all Oliver's victories. Before the sun was high in the heavens the Scottish army had ceased to exist.

Royalism in Scotland

After Dunbar it was easy for the victorious army to overrun southern Scotland, more especially as the dissensions of the enemy were embittered by the defeat of which they had been the prime cause. The Kirk indeed put Dunbar to the account of its own remissness in not purging their army more thoroughly, but, as Cromwell wrote on September 4, the Kirk had "done its do." "I believe their king will set up on his own score," he continued, and indeed, now that the army of the Kirk was destroyed and they themselves were secure behind the Forth and based on the friendly Highlands, Charles and the Cavaliers were in a position not only to defy Cromwell, but also to force the Scottish national spirit of resistance to the invader into a purely Royalist channel. Cromwell had only received a few drafts and reinforcements from England, and for the present he could but block up Edinburgh Castle (which surrendered on Christmas eve), and try to bring up adequate forces and material for the siege of Stirling an attempt which was frustrated by the badness of the roads and the violence of the weather. The rest of the early winter of 1650 was thus occupied in semi-military, semi-political operations between detachments of the English army and certain armed forces of the Kirk party which still maintained a precarious existence in the western Lowlands, and in police work against the moss-troopers of the Border counties. Early in February 1651, still in the midst of terrible weather, Cromwell made another resolute but futile attempt to reach Stirling. This time he himself fell sick, and his losses had to be made good by drafts of recruits from England, many of whom came most unwillingly to serve in the cold wet bivouacs that the newspapers had graphically reported.

The English Militia

About this time there occurred in England two events which had a most important bearing on the campaign. The first was the detection of a widespread Royalist-Presbyterian conspiracy how widespread no one knew, for those of its promoters who were captured and executed certainly formed but a small fraction of the whole number. Major-General Harrison was ordered to Lancashire in April to watch the north Welsh, earl of Derby on the Isle of Man and Border Royalists, and military precautions were taken in various parts of England. The second was the revival of the militia. Since 1644 there had been no general employment of local forces, the quarrel having fallen into the hands of the regular armies by force of circumstances. The New Model, though a national army, resembled Wellington's British Peninsular army more than the soldiers of the levée en masse of the French Revolution and the American Civil War. It was now engaged in prosecuting a war of aggression against the hereditary foe over the Border strictly the task of a professional army with a national basis. The militia was indeed raw and untrained. Some of the Essex men "fell flat on their faces on the sound of a cannon." In the north of England Harrison complained to Cromwell of the "badness" of his men, and the lord general sympathized, having "had much such stuff" sent him to make good the losses in trained men. Even he for a moment lost touch with the spirit of the people. His recruits were unwilling drafts for foreign service, but in England the new levies were trusted to defend their homes, and the militia was soon triumphantly to justify its existence on the day of Worcester.

Inverkeithing

While David Leslie organized and drilled the king's new army beyond the Forth, Cromwell was, slowly and with frequent relapses, recovering from his illness. The English army marched to Glasgow in April, then returned to Edinburgh. The motives of the march and that of the return are alike obscure, but it may be conjectured that, the forces in England under Harrison having now assembled in Lancashire, the Edinburgh-Newcastle-York road had to be covered by the main army. Be this as it may, Cromwell's health again broke down and his life was despaired of. Only late in June were operations actively resumed between Stirling and Linlithgow. At first Cromwell sought without success to bring Leslie to battle, but he stormed Callendar House near Falkirk on July 13, and on July 16, he began the execution of a brilliant and successful manoeuvre. A force from Queensferry, covered by the English fleet, was thrown across the Firth of Forth to North Ferry. Lambert followed with reinforcements, and defeated a detachment of Leslie's army at the Battle of Inverkeithing on the July 20. Leslie drew back at once, but managed to find a fresh strong position in front of Stirling, whence he defied Cromwell again. At this juncture Cromwell prepared to pass his whole army across the Firth. His contemplated manoeuvre of course gave up to the enemy all the roads into England, and before undertaking it the lord general held a consultation with Harrison, as the result of which that officer took over the direct defence of the whole Border. But his mind was made up even before this, for on the day he met Harrison at Linlithgow three-quarters of his whole army had already crossed into Fife. Burntisland, surrendered to Lambert on July 29, gave Cromwell a good harbour upon which to base his subsequent movements. On July 30, the English marched upon Perth, and the investment of this place, the key to Leslie's supply area, forced the crisis at once. Whether Leslie would have preferred to manoeuvre Cromwell from his vantage-ground or not is immaterial; the young king and the now predominant Royalist element at headquarters seized the long-awaited opportunity at once, and on the July 31, leaving Cromwell to his own devices, the Royal army marched southward to raise the Royal standard in England.

The Third Scottish Invasion of England

Then began the last and most thrilling campaign of the English Civil War. Charles II. expected complete success. In Scotland, vis-a-vis the extreme Covenanters, he was a king on conditions, and he was glad enough to find himself in England with some thirty solidly organized regiments under Royalist officers and with no regular army in front of him. He hoped, too, to rally not merely the old faithful Royalists, but also the overwhelming numerical strength of the English Presbyterians to his standard. His army was kept well in hand, no excesses were allowed, and in a week the Royalists covered 150 miles in marked contrast to the duke of Hamilton's ill-fated expedition of 1648. On August 8, the troops were given a well-earned rest between Penrith and Kendal. But the Royalists were mistaken in supposing that the enemy was taken aback by their new move. Everything had been foreseen both by Cromwell and by the Council of State in Westminster. The latter had called out the greater part of the militia on August 7. Lieutenant-General Fleetwood began to draw together the midland contingents at Banbury, the London trained bands turned out for field service no fewer than 14,000 strong. Every suspected Royalist was closely watched, and the magazines of arms in the country-houses of the gentry were for the most part removed into the strong places. On his part Cromwell had quietly made his preparations. Perth passed into his hands on August 2, and he brought back his army to Leith by August 5. Thence he despatched Lambert with a cavalry corps to harass the invaders. Harrison was already at Newcastle picking the best of the county mounted-troops to add to his own regulars. On August 9, Charles was at Kendal, Lambert hovering in his rear, and Harrison marching swiftly to bar his way at the Mersey. Thomas Fairfax emerged for a moment from his retirement to organize the Yorkshire levies, and the best of these as well as of the Lancashire, Cheshire and Staffordshire militias were directed upon Warrington, which point Harrison reached on the August 15, a few hours in front of Charles's advanced guard. Lambert too, slipping round the left flank of the enemy, joined Harrison, and the English fell back (August 16), slowly and without letting themselves be drawn into a fight, along the London road.

Campaign of Worcester

Cromwell meanwhile, leaving George Monck with the least efficient regiments to carry on the war in Scotland, had reached the river Tyne in seven days, and thence, marching 20 miles a day in extreme heat with the country people carrying their arms and equipment the regulars entered Ferrybridge on the August 19, at which date Lambert, Harrison and the north-western militia were about Congleton. It seemed probable that a great battle would take place between Lichfield and Coventry on or just after August 25, and that Cromwell, Harrison, Lambert and Fleetwood would all take part in it. But the scene and the date of the denouement were changed by the enemy's movements. Shortly after leaving Warrington the young king had resolved to abandon the direct march on London and to make for the Severn valley, where his father had found the most constant and the most numerous adherents in the first war, and which had been the centre of gravity of the English Royalist movement of 1648. Sir Edward Massey, formerly the Parliamentary governor of Gloucester, was now with Charles, and it was hoped that he would induce his fellow Presbyterians to take arms. The military quality of the Welsh border Royalists was well proved, that of the Gloucestershire Presbyterians not less so, and, based on Gloucester and Worcester as his father had been based on Oxford, Charles II. hoped, not unnaturally, to deal with an Independent minority more effectually than Charles I. had done with a Parliamentary majority of the people of England. But even the pure Royalism which now ruled in the invading army could not alter the fact that it was a Scottish army, and it was not an Independent faction but all England that took arms against it. Charles arrived at Worcester on August 22, and spent five days in resting the troops, preparing for further operations, and gathering and arming the few recruits who came in. It is unnecessary to argue that the delay was fatal; it was a necessity of the case foreseen and accepted when the march to Worcester had been decided upon, and had the other course, that of marching on London via Lichfield, been taken the battle would have been fought three days earlier with the same result. Cromwell, the lord general, had during his march south thrown out successively two flying columns under Colonel Robert Lilburne to deal with the Lancashire Royalists under the earl of Derby. Lilburne entirely routed the enemy at the Battle of Wigan Lane on August 25 and as affairs turned out Cromwell merely shifted the area of his concentration two marches to the south-west, to Evesham. Early on the August 28, Lambert surprised the passage of the Severn at Upton, 6 miles below Worcester, and in the action which followed Massey was severely wounded. Fleetwood followed Lambert. The enemy was now only 16,000 strong and disheartened by the apathy with which they had been received in districts formerly all their own. Cromwell, for the first and last time in his military career, had a two-to-one numerical superiority.

The "Crowning Mercy"

He took his measures deliberately. Colonel Robert Lilburne from Lancashire and Major Mercer with the Worcestershire horse were to secure Bewdley bridge on the enemy's line of retreat. Lambert and Fleetwood were to force their way across the Teme (a little river on which Prince Rupert had won his first victory in 1642) and attack St John's, the western suburb of Worcester. Cromwell himself and the main army were to attack the town itself. On September 3, the anniversary of Dunbar, the programme was carried out exactly. Fleetwood forced the passage of the Teme, and the bridging train (which had been carefully organized for the purpose) bridged both the Teme and the Severn. Then Cromwell on the left bank and Fleetwood on the right swept in a semicircle 4 miles long up to Worcester. Every hedgerow was contested by the stubborn Royalists, but Fleetwood's men would not be denied, and Cromwell's extreme right on the eastern side of the town repelled, after three hours of hard fighting, the last desperate attempt of the Royalists to break out. The Battle of Worcester was indeed, as a German critic has pointed out, the prototype of Sedan. Everywhere the defences were stormed as darkness came on, regulars and militia fighting with equal gallantry, and the few thousands of the Royalists who escaped during the night were easily captured by Lilburne and Mercer, or by the militia which watched every road in Yorkshire and Lancashire. Even the country people brought in scores of prisoners, for officers and men alike, stunned by the suddenness of the disaster, offered no resistance. Charles escaped after many adventures, but he was one of the few men in his army who regained a place of safety. The Parliamentary militia were sent home within a week. Cromwell, who had ridiculed "such stuff" six months ago, knew them better now. "Your new raised forces," he wrote to the House, "did perform singular good service, for which they deserve a very high estimation and acknowledgment." Worcester resembled Sedan in much more than outward form. Both were fought by "nations in arms," by citizen soldiers who had their hearts in the struggle, and could be trusted not only to fight their hardest but to march their best. Only with such troops would a general dare to place a deep river between the two halves of his army or to send away detachments beforehand to reap the fruits of victory, in certain anticipation of winning the victory with the remainder. The sense of duty, which the raw militia possessed in so high a degree, ensured the arrival and the action of every column at the appointed time and place. The result was, in brief, one of those rare victories in which a pursuit is superfluous a "crowning mercy," as Cromwell called it. There is little of note in the closing operations. General Monck had completed his task of mopped up remnants of Royalist resistance in Scotland by May 1652; and Scotland, which had twice attempted to impose its will on England, found itself reduced to the position of an English province under martial law. Under the terms of the "Tender of Union", the Scots were given 30 seats in a united Parliament in London, with Monck appointed as the military governor of Scotland.

References

based on the article GREAT REBELLION.

Notes

# The tents were evidently issued for regular marches, not for cross-country manoeuvres against the enemy. These manoeuvres, as we have seen, often took several days. The bon general ordinaire of the 17th and 18th centuries framed his manoeuvres on a smaller scale so as not to expose his expensive and highly trained soldiers to discomfort and the consequent temptation to desert.

External links

- [http://www.electricscotland.com/history/genhist/hist49.html General History of the Highlands 1650 - 1660] Category:English Civil War Category:Wars of the Three Kingdoms

Act of Union 1800

The Act of Union 1800 merged the Kingdom of Ireland and the Kingdom of Great Britain (itself a merger of England and Scotland under the Act of Union 1707) to create the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland on 1 January 1801. The Act was passed by both the British and Irish parliaments. The Irish parliament had been given a large measure of independence by the Constitution of 1782, after centuries of being subordinated to the English (and later, British) Parliament. Thus, many members had guarded its autonomy jealously, including Henry Grattan, and had rejected a previous motion for Union in 1799. However, a concerted campaign by the British government, and the uncertainty that followed the Irish Rebellion of 1798, made Union a more palatable prospect. The final passage of the Act in the Irish Parliament was achieved with substantial majorities, and was marked by mass bribery of Irish MPs by the British government, including the granting of titles and lands. Under the terms of the union, Ireland had over 100 MPs representing it in the united parliament, meeting in the Palace of Westminster (more than would be proportionate according to population). Part of the attraction of the Union for many Irish Catholics was the promise of Catholic Emancipation, thereby allowing Roman Catholic MPs (which had not been allowed in the Irish Parliament). However this was blocked by King George III who argued that emancipating Roman Catholics would breach his Coronation Oath; it was delayed until 1829. 1829] The flag created by the merger of the Kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland in 1801 still remains the flag of the United Kingdom. Known as the "Union Flag" (or Union Jack), it combines the flags of England and Scotland with St Patrick's Cross, representing Ireland.

External links

- [http://www.actofunion.ac.uk/ Act of Union - Virtual Library]
- [http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/abstract.asp?ref=0018-2648&vid=82&iid=266&aid=35&s=&site=1 Abstract] of an article from the journal History about the Act of Union. Category:British laws Category:History of Great Britain Category:History of England Category:History of Ireland Category:History of Ireland 1801-1922 Category:Irish constitutional law Category:1800 in law Category:United Kingdom constitution

1541

Events

- The first official translation of the entire Bible in Swedish
- February 12 - Pedro de Valdivia founds Santiago de Chile.
- May 8 - Hernando de Soto reaches the Mississippi River naming it Rio de Espiritu Santo.
- May 23 - Jacques Cartier departs Saint-Malo France on his third voyage.
- July 9 - Estevão da Gama departs Massawa, leaving behind 400 matchlockmen and 150 slaves under his brother Christovão da Gama, with orders to assist the Emperor of Ethiopia defeat Ahmad ibn Ibrihim al-Ghazi who has invaded his Empire.
- August 29 - The Janissaries of Suleiman the Magnificent take Buda by ruse, hiding themselves as tourists.
- Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent seals off The Golden Gate in Jerusalem.
- Irish Parliament declares Ireland to be a kingdom
- October - The unsuccessful Algerian campaign of Charles V of Spain Gabsurg

Births

- January 26 - Florent Chrestien, French writer (d. 1596)
- March 25 - Francesco I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (died 1587)
- April 8 - Michele Mercati, Italian physician and gardener (died 1593)
- Pierre Charron, French philosopher (died 1603)
- Walter Devereux, 1st Earl of Essex, English nobleman (died 1576)
- El Greco, Greek-born artist (died 1614)
- Hatano Hideharu, Japanese samurai (died 1579)
- Mizuno Tadashige, Japanese nobleman (died 1600)
- Guðbrandur Þorláksson, mathematician See also :Category: 1541 births.

Deaths

- May 27 - Margaret Pole, 8th Countess of Salisbury (executed) (born 1473)
- June 26 - Francisco Pizarro, Spanish conquistador
- July 4 - Pedro de Alvarado, Spanish conquistador (born 1495)
- August 1 - Simon Grynaeus, German scholar and theologian (born 1493)
- September 24 - Paracelsus, Swiss alchemist (b. 1493)
- November 24 - Margaret Tudor, queen of James IV of Scotland (born 1489)
- Francisco Alvarez, Portuguese missionary and explorer (born 1465)
- Wolfgang Fabricius Capito, German reformer
- Jean Clouet, French miniature painter
- Thomas Culpeper, English courtier
- Giovanni Guidiccioni, Italian poet (born 1480)
- Andreas Karlstadt, Christian theologian and reformer
- Gendun Gyatso, 2nd Dalai Lama
- Jerzy Radziwill, Polish nobleman (born 1480)
- Amago Tsunehisa, Japanese warlord
- Juan de Valdés, Spanish religious writer (born 1500) See also :Category: 1541 deaths. Category:1541 ko:1541년

Wales

:For alternate meanings, see Wales (disambiguation) :For an explanation of often confusing terms like (Great) Britain, United Kingdom and England see British Isles (terminology) . Wales (Welsh: Cymru; pronounced IPA: , approximately "CUM-ree") is a principality and one of the four constituent parts of the United Kingdom (along with England, Scotland, and Northern Ireland). Wales is located in the south-west of Great Britain, and is bordered by England to the east, the Bristol Channel to the south, St George's Channel in the west, and the Irish Sea to the north. The term Principality of Wales, in Welsh, Tywysogaeth Cymru, is often used, although the Prince of Wales has no role in the governance of Wales and this term is unpopular among some. Wales has not been politically independent since 1282, when it was conquered by King Edward I of England. The capital of Wales since 1955 has been Cardiff, although Caernarfon is the location where the Prince of Wales is invested, and Machynlleth was the home of a parliament called by Owain Glyndwr during his revolt at the start of the fifteenth century. In 1999, the National Assembly for Wales was formed, which has limited domestic powers and cannot make law.

History

Main article: History of Wales The Romans established a string of forts across what is now southern Wales, as far west as Carmarthen (Maridunum), and mined gold at Dolaucothi in Carmarthenshire. There is evidence that they progressed even further west. They also built the legionary fortress at Caerleon (Isca), whose magnificent amphitheatre is the best preserved in Britain. The Romans were also busy in northern Wales, and an old legend claims that Magnus Maximus, one of the last emperors, married Elen or Helen, the daughter of a Welsh chieftain from Segontium, near present-day Caernarfon. Wales was never conquered by the Anglo-Saxons, due to the fierce resistance of its people and its mountainous terrain. An Anglo-Saxon king, Offa of Mercia, is credited with having constructed a great earth wall, or dyke, along the border with his kingdom, to mark off a large part of Powys which he had conquered. Parts of Offa's Dyke can still be seen today. Wales remained a Celtic region, and its people kept speaking the Welsh language, even as the Celtic elements of England and Scotland gradually disappeared. The name Wales is evidence of this, as it comes from a Germanic root word meaning stranger or foreigner, and as such is related to the names of several other European regions where Germanic peoples came into contact with non-Germanic cultures including Wallonia in Belgium and Wallachia in Romania, as well as the "-wall" of Cornwall. Part of the word "Cymru" is evident in the "Cum-" of Cumberland and Cumbria. Wales continued to be Christian (see 1904–1905 Welsh Revival and Welsh Methodist revival) when England was overrun by pagan German and Scandinavian tribes, though many older beliefs and customs survived among its people. Thus, Saint David (Dewi Sant) went on a pilgrimage to Rome during the 6th century, and was serving as a bishop in Wales well before Augustine arrived to convert the king of Kent and found the diocese of Canterbury. Although the Druidic religion is alleged to have had its stronghold in Wales until the Roman invasion, many of the so-called traditions, such as the gorsedd, or assembly of bards, were the invention of eighteenth-century "historians." The traditional women's Welsh costume, incorporating a tall black hat, was devised in the nineteenth century by Lady Llanover, herself a prominent patron of the Welsh language and culture. The conquest of Wales by England did not take place in 1066, when England was conquered by the Normans, but was gradual, not being complete until 1282, when King Edward I of England defeated Llywelyn the Last, Wales's last independent prince, in battle. Edward constructed a series of great stone castles in order to keep the Welsh under control. The best known are at Caernarfon, Conwy, and Harlech. Wales was legally annexed by the Laws in Wales Act 1535, in the reign of Henry VIII of England. The Wales and Berwick Act 1746 provided that all laws that applied to England would automatically apply to Wales (and Berwick, a town located on the Anglo-Scottish border) unless the law explicitly stated otherwise. This act, with regard to Wales, was repealed in 1967. See: Annales Cambriae

Politics

Main article: Politics of Wales; see also Politics of the United Kingdom Wales has been a principality since the 13th century, initially under the Welsh prince Llywelyn the Great, and later under his grandson, Llywelyn the Last, who took the title Prince of Wales around 1258, and was recognised by the English Crown in 1277 by the Treaty of Aberconwy. Following his defeat by Edward I, however, Welsh independence in the 14th century was limited to a number of minor revolts. The greatest such revolt was that of Owain Glyndwr, who gained popular support in 1400, and defeated an English force at Pumlumon in 1401. In response, the English parliament passed repressive measures denying the Welsh the right of assembly. Glyndwr was proclaimed Prince of Wales, and sought assistance from the French, but by 1409 his forces were scattered under the attacks of King Henry IV of England and further measures imposed against the Welsh. The Laws in Wales Act 1535 abolished the remaining Marcher Lordships, leaving Wales with thirteen counties: Anglesey, Brecon, Caernarfon, Cardigan, Carmarthen, Denbigh, Flint, Glamorgan, Merioneth, Monmouth, Montgomery, Pembroke, and Radnor, and applied the Law of England to both England and Wales, requiring the English language for official purposes. This excluded most native Welsh from any formal office. Wales continues to share a legal identity with England to a large degree as the joint entity of England and Wales. Scotland and Northern Ireland retain separate legal systems. Wales was for centuries dwarfed by its larger neighbour, England. Indeed, one well-known British encyclopedia was said — perhaps apocryphally — to have had an entry reading "WALES. See under ENGLAND". In 1955 steps were taken to re-establish a sense of national identity for Wales when Cardiff was established as its capital. Before this, legislation passed by the UK parliament had simply referred to England, rather than England and Wales. Since 1993 and the passing of the Welsh Language Act it has been law for all documents produced by public bodies to be in both English and Welsh. Many private companies have followed suit, producing literature with similar bilingual qualities. The National Assembly for Wales, sitting in Cardiff, first elected in 1999, is elected by the Welsh people and has its powers defined by the Government of Wales Act 1998. The title of Prince of Wales is still given by the reigning British monarch to his or her eldest son, but in modern times the Prince does not live in Wales and has no direct involvement with administration or government. The Prince is, however, still symbolically linked to the principality; the investiture of Charles, Prince of Wales took place at Caernarfon Castle in North Wales, a place traditionally associated with the creation of the title in the 13th century. The investiture was considered an insult by some Welsh people, and Welsh folk singer Dafydd Iwan released mocking singles called Croeso Chwedeg Nain (Welcome 69, although a literal translation would be Welcome Granny's 60th (birthday)) and Carlo (Charlie). Two members of "Mudiad Amddiffyn Cymru" – MAC (Welsh Defence Movement) – George Taylor and Alwyn Jones, the "Abergele Martyrs", were killed by a home made bomb at Abergele the day before the investiture ceremony.

Geography

Abergele Main article: Geography of Wales Wales is located on a peninsula in central-west Great Britain. The entire area of Wales is about 20,779 km² (8,023 square miles). It is about 274 km (170 miles) long and 97 km (60 miles) wide. Wales borders by England to the east and by sea in the other three directions: the Bristol Channel to the south, St George's Channel to the west, and the Irish Sea to the north. Together, Wales has over 965 km (600 miles) of coastline. There are several islands off the Welsh mainland, the largest being Anglesey in the northwest. The main population and industrial areas are in South Wales, consisting of the cities of Cardiff, Swansea and Newport and surrounding areas. Much of Wales's diverse landscape is mountainous, particularly in the north and central regions. The mountains were shaped during the last ice age, the Devensian glaciation. The highest mountains in Wales are in Snowdonia, and include Snowdon, which, at 1085 m (3,560 feet) is the highest peak in England and Wales. The 14 (or possibly 15) Welsh mountains over 3000 feet high are known collectively as the Welsh 3000s. The Brecon Beacons are in the south and are joined by the Cambrian Mountains in mid-Wales, the latter being given to the earliest geological period of the Paleozoic (Cambrian). Consequently, the next two periods, Ordovician and Silurian were named after Welsh/Celtic tribes from this area. The modern border between Wales and England is highly arbitrary; it was largely defined in the 16th century, based on medieval feudal boundaries. It has apparently never been confirmed by referendum or reviewed by any Boundary Commission (except to confirm Monmouthshire as part of Wales in 1968). The boundary line follows Offa's Dyke only approximately. It separates Knighton from its railway station, virtually cuts off Church Stoke from the rest of Wales, and slices straight through the village of Llanymynech (where a pub actually straddles the line). The Seven Wonders of Wales is a traditional list of seven geographic and cultural landmarks in Wales: Snowdon (the highest mountain), the Gresford bells (the peal of bells in the medieval church of All Saints at Gresford), the Llangollen bridge (built in 1347 over the River Dee), St Winefride's Well (a pilgrimage site at Holywell in Flintshire) the Wrexham steeple (16th century tower of St. Giles Church in Wrexham), the Overton yew trees (ancient yew trees in the churchyard of St Mary's at Overton-on-Dee) and Pistyll Rhaeadr (Wales's tallest waterfall, at 240 feet or 75 m). The wonders are part of the traditional rhyme: :Pistyll Rhaeadr and Wrexham steeple, :Snowdon's mountain without its people, :Overton yew trees, St Winefride wells, :Llangollen bridge and Gresford bells. Highest maximum temperature: 35.2°C (95.4°F) at Hawarden Bridge, Flintshire on 2 August 1990. Lowest minimum temperature: -23.3°C (-10°F) at Rhayader, Radnorshire on 21 January 1940. [http://www.metoffice.com/climate/uk/location/wales/#temperature] See also: List of towns in Wales

Divisions

For administrative purposes, Wales has been divided since 1996 into 22 unitary authorities:
- 9 counties
- 10 county boroughs
- 3 cities^{1^{- Cardiff, Swansea and Newport.

For more details and recent history of the political divisions of Wales, see Subdivisions of Wales.

1: There are five cities in total in Wales — in addition to the three unitary authorities listed above, the communities of Bangor & St. David's also have the status of a city.

Economy

Parts of Wales have been heavily industrialised since the eighteenth century. Coal, copper, iron, lead, and gold have been mined in Wales, and slate has been quarried. Ironworks and tinplate works, along with the coal mines, attracted large numbers of immigrants during the nineteenth century, particularly to the valleys north of Cardiff. Due to the poor quality soil, much of Wales is unsuitable for crop-growing, and livestock farming has traditionally been the focus of agriculture. The Welsh landscape, protected by three National Parks, and the unique Welsh culture bring in tourism, which is especially vital for rural areas.

Light engineering is still an important activity in the main population areas of the South and extreme North-East, but the economy, as elsewhere in the UK, is now focused on the service sector.

Food

About 80% of the land surface of Wales is given over to agricultural use. Very little of this is arable land though as the vast majority consists of permanent grass or rough grazing for herd animals. Although both beef and dairy cattle are raised widely, especially in Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire, Wales is more well-known for its sheep farming, and thus lamb is the meat traditionally associated with Welsh cooking.

Welsh food is usually made from local ingredients. Some traditional dishes include laverbread (made from seaweed), bara brith (fruit cake), cawl cennin (leek stew), Welsh cakes, Welsh rarebit, and Welsh lamb. A type of shellfish, cockles, is often served with breakfast.

Demographics
Demographics of Wales as at the 2001 Census:

- Population: 2,903,085, Male: 1,403,782 Female: 1,499,303

- Percentage of the population born in:

- England: 20.32%

- Wales: 75.39%

- Scotland: 0.84%

- Northern Ireland: 0.27%

- Republic of Ireland: 0.44%

- Ethnic groups:

- White: British: 95.99%

- White: Irish: 0.61%

- White: other: 1.28%

- Mixed: white and black: 0.29%

- Mixed: white and Asian: 0.17%

- Mixed: other: 0.15%

- Asian:

- Indian/British Indian: 0.28%

- Pakistani/British Pakistani: 0.29%

- Bangladeshi/British Bangladeshi: 0.19%

- Other Asian: 0.12%

- Black: 0.25%

- Chinese: 0.40%

- Percentage of the British population self-identifying as Welsh: 14.39% (controversially, there was no question on the Census form asking this — people had to write this in).

- Religion:

- Christian: 71.9%

- Buddhist: 0.19%

- Hindu: 0.19%

- Jewish: 0.08%

- Muslim: 0.75%

- Sikh: 0.07%

- Other religion: 0.24%

- No religion: 18.53%

- Not disclosed: 8.07%

- The largest single denomination of Wales is Calvinist Methodism, which by far is the largest single denomination, followed by the Roman Catholic Church (Eglwys Catholig Rufeinig) and the Episcopalian (Anglican) Church in Wales (Eglwys yng Nghymru) with 3% of the population each, and the Congregationalist Union of Welsh Independents (Undeb yr Annibynwyr Cymraeg) and the Presbyterian Church of Wales (Eglwys Bresbyteraidd Cymru) with 1% of the population each.

- Age structure of the population:

- 0-4: 167,903

- 5-7: 108,149

- 8-9: 77,176

- 10-14: 195,976

- 15: 37,951

- 16-17: 75,234

- 18-19: 71,519

- 20-24: 169,493

- 25-29: 166,348

- 30-44: 605,962

- 45-59: 569,676

- 60-64: 152,924

- 65-74: 264,191

- 75-84: 182,202

- 85-89: 38,977

- 90+: 19,404

- Knowledge of the Welsh language:

- Percentage of the population aged 3 or more knowing spoken Welsh only: 4.93%

- Percentage of the population aged 3 or more speaking Welsh but not reading or writing it: 2.83%

- Percentage of the population aged 3 or more speaking and reading Welsh but not writing it: 1.37%

- Percentage of the population aged 3 or more speaking, reading, and writing Welsh: 16.32%

- Percentage of the population aged 3 or more with some other skills combination: 2.98%

- Percentage of the population aged 3 or more with no knowledge of Welsh: 71.57%

- In Gwynedd, Anglesey, Ceredigion and Carmarthenshire, Welsh speakers are in the majority.

- Gwynedd has the highest proportion of Welsh speakers, but Carmarthenshire has the highest number of them in any one principal area.

- According to www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/uk.html[http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/uk.html], 26% of the population are knowledgeable of Cymraeg.

Culture
Main article: Culture of Wales

Music
Main article: Music of Wales

Wales is known as a the home of many musicians and musical styles. Wales is particularly famous for harpists, male voice choirs, and solo artists including Tom Jones, Charlotte Church, Bryn Terfel, Katherine Jenkins, and Shirley Bassey. Indie bands like Catatonia, Stereophonics, The Manic Street Preachers, and Super Furry Animals in the 1990s and later Goldie Lookin' Chain and Funeral for a Friend are also from Wales. The Welsh folk music scene, long overshadowed by its Irish and Scottish cousins, is in resurgence. The BBC National Orchestra of Wales performs throughout Wales and internationally.

Photos of Wales

image:Snowdon from Llyn Llydaw.jpg|The summit of Snowdon, Snowdonia, highest mountain in Wales
image:Caernarfon_castle_interior.jpg|Caernarfon castle
image:Tredegar-House.png|Tredegar House, Newport
image:HallOfTheMountainKings.jpg|Hall of the Mountain Kings, Ogof Craig a Ffynnon, a cave in the Brecon Beacons
image:Uwlsdb.jpg|The University of Wales, Lampeter, the oldest higher education institution in Wales
image:Aberstw.jpg|The Castle and Old College building, Aberystwyth
Image:Assemblybldg1.jpg|The National Assembly for Wales, Cardiff

Notable Welsh people
:see List of Welsh people

See also

- Angelystor

- Education in Wales

- List of not fully sovereign nations

- England and Wales

- List of public holidays in Wales

- List of Welsh people

- List of rulers of Wales

- List of United Kingdom-related topics

- Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch

- Seven Wonders of Wales

- Walh

- Welsh narrow gauge railways

- Madog ap Owain Gwynedd

- The size of Wales

- Wales national rugby union team

- Welsh national football team

External links

- [http://www.walesworldnation.com Wales. World Nation](General information about Wales, its government and its people)

- [http://www.famouswelsh.com Famous Welsh People]

- [http://www.butlinsbarryisland.com/ ButlinsBarryIsland.com : The history of the Barry Island Holiday Camp]

- [http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/ BBC Wales]

- [http://www.wales.gov.uk National Assembly for Wales]

- [http://www.walesontheweb.org Wales on the Web] (Web directory)

- [http://www.google.com/Top/Regional/Europe/United_Kingdom/Wales/ Google Directory: Wales ] (Web directory)

- [http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/state/nations/ BBC Nations] (Brief history of Wales)

- [http://www.walesscreencommission.co.uk/ Wales Screen Commission] (Filming in Wales)

- [http://www.walesinfo.com/ Wales Tourist Information] (Tourist Information)

- [http://www.visitwales.com/ Visit Wales] (Official Tourist Information from the Wales Tourist Board)

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Category:NUTS 1 Statistical Regions of Europe

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Reformation
: The word Reformation links here. For other uses of the term, please see Reformation (disambiguation).

The Protestant Reformation was a movement which emerged in the 16th century as a series of attempts to reform the Roman Catholic Church in Western Europe. The main front of the reformation was started by Martin Luther and his 95 Theses. The reformation ended in division and the establishment of new institutions, most importantly Lutheranism, the Reformed churches, and Anabaptists, a radical branch which name means "those who baptize again". It also led to the Counter-Reformation within the Roman Catholic Church, which theological draft and background were drawn up with the Council of Trent (1548–1563), when Rome struck back against the fundamental ideas defended by the Reformers, like Luther.

History and origins

Roots and precursors: 14th Century and 15th Century

- Anti-hierarchical movements: Catharism, Waldensianism, and others

- Avignon Papacy ("Babylonian Captivity of the Church"), Avignon, Great Schism

- Jan Hus, John Wycliffe, William Tyndale

- Northern Renaissance

Unrest in the Western Church and Empire culminated in the Avignon Papacy (1308–1378), and the papal schism (1378–1416), excited wars between princes, uprisings among the peasants, and widespread concern over corruption in the monastic system. A new nationalism also challenged the relatively internationalist medieval world.

One of the most disruptive and radical of the new perspectives came first from John Wycliffe at Oxford University, then from Jan Hus at the University of Prague. The Roman Catholic Church officially concluded this debate at the Council of Constance (1414–1418). The conclave condemned Jan Hus, who was executed (he had come under a promise of safe-conduct) and posthumously burned Wycliffe as a heretic.

Constance confirmed and strengthened the traditional medieval conception of church and empire. It did not address the national tensions, or the theological tensions which had been stirred up during the previous century. The council could not prevent schism and the Hussite Wars in Bohemia.

Historical upheaval usually yields a lot of new thinking as to how society should be organized. This was the case leading up to the Protestant Reformation. Following the breakdown of monastic institutions and scholasticism in late medieval Europe, accentuated by the ‘Babylonian Captivity’ of the Avignon Papacy, the Great Schism, and the failure of conciliar reform, the sixteenth century saw the fermenting of a great cultural debate about religious reforms and later fundamental religious values. Historians would generally assume that the failure to reform (too many vested interests, lack of coordination in the reforming coalition) would eventually lead to a greater upheaval or even revolution, since the system must eventually be adjusted or disintegrate, and the failure of the Conciliar movement led to the Protestant Reformation in the European West. These frustrated reformist movements ranged from nominalism, modern devotion, to humanism occurring in conjunction with economic, political and demographic forces that contributed to a growing disaffection with the wealth and power of the elite clergy, sensitizing the population to the financial and moral corruption of the secular Renaissance church.

The outcome of the Black Death encouraged a radical reorganization of the economy, and eventually of European society. In the emerging urban centers, however, the calamities of the fourteenth and early fifteenth century, and the resultant labor shortages, provided a strong impetus for economic diversification and technological innovations. Following the Black Death, the initial loss of life due to famine, plague, and pestilence contributed to an intensification of capital accumulation in the urban areas, and thus a stimulus to trade, industry, and burgeoning urban growth in fields as diverse as banking (the Fugger banking family in Augsburg and the Medici family of Florence being the most prominent); textiles, armaments, especially stimulated by the Hundred Years War, and mining of iron ore due, in large part, to the booming armaments industry. Accumulation of surplus, competitive overproduction, and heightened competition to maximize economic advantage, contributed to civil war, aggressive militarism, and thus to centralization. As a direct result of the move toward centralization, leaders like Louis XI of France (1461-1483), the “spider king,” sought to remove all constitutional restrictions on the exercise of their authority. In England, France, and Spain the move toward centralization begun in the thirteenth century was carried to a successful conclusion.

But as recovery and prosperity progressed, enabling the population to reach its former levels in the late fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the combination of both a newly-abundant labor supply as well as improved productivity, were 'mixed blessings' for many segments of Western European society. Despite tradition, landlords started the move to exclude peasants from 'common lands'. With trade stimulated, landowners increasingly moved away from the manorial economy. Woolen manufacturing greatly expanded in France, Germany, and the Netherlands and new textile industries began to develop.

The 'humanism' of the Renaissance period stimulated unprecedented academic ferment, and a concern for academic freedom. Ongoing, earnest theoretical debates occurred in the universities about the nature of the church, and the source and extent of the authority of the papacy, of councils, and of princes.

16th century

- Martin Luther, Johann Tetzel, Philipp Melanchthon, Indulgences, 95 Theses, Nicolaus Von Amsdorf

- Exsurge Domine, Diet of Worms (1521), Peasants' War

- Huldrych Zwingli and Zürich

- John Calvin and Geneva

- John Knox and Scotland

- Radical Reformers — Müntzer, Anabaptists, Menno Simons

- Reformation in France — Huguenots, Pierre Viret

Protestants generally trace their separation from the Roman Catholic Church to the 16th century, which is sometimes called the magisterial Reformation because the movement received support from the magistrates, the ruling authorities (as opposed to the radical Reformation, which had no state sponsorship). The protest erupted suddenly, in many places at once but particularly in Germany, during a time of threatened Islamic invasion¹ which distracted German princes in particular. To some degree, the protest can be explained by the events of the previous two centuries in Western Europe.

The protest began in earnest when Martin Luther, an Augustinian monk and professor at the University of Wittenberg, called in 1517 for reopening of debate on the sale of indulgences. Tradition holds that he nailed his 95 theses to the door of the Wittenberg Castle's Church, which served as a pin board for university-related announcements. Luther's dissent marked a sudden outbreak with new and irresistible force of discontent which had been pushed underground but not resolved; the quick spread of discontent occurred to a large degree because of the printing press and the resulting swift movement of both ideas and documents (such as the 95 Theses).

It is noteworthy that the Reformation foundations were engaged by an Augustianism trend that marked both the mindset of Luther and Calvin, and oriented them to set forth thesis and ideas that pinpointed deeply their thought, heavily linked with the theologic teaching of the Doctor of Church (Aurelius Augustus of Hyppo), the well-known African Bishop of Hyppo, during the IV century. The Augustianism of the Reformers struggled against the Pelagianism, an insistent heresy officially banished from the Church since St. Augustin's early days.

Parallel to events in Germany, a movement began in Switzerland under the leadership of Huldrych Zwingli. These two movements quickly agreed on most issues, as the recently introduced printing press spread ideas rapidly from place to place, but some unresolved differences kept them separate. Some followers of Zwingli believed that the Reformation was too conservative, and moved independently toward more radical positions, some of which survive among modern day Anabaptists. Other Protestant movements grew up along lines of mysticism or humanism (cf. Erasmus), sometimes breaking from Rome or from the Protestants, or forming outside of the churches.

After this first stage of the Reformation, following the excommunication of Luther and condemnation of the Reformation by the Pope, the work and writings of John Calvin were influential in establishing a loose consensus among various groups in Switzerland, Scotland, Hungary, Germany and elsewhere. The separation of the Church of England from Rome under Henry VIII, beginning in 1529 and completed in 1536, brought England alongside this broad Reformed movement. However, religious changes in the English national church proceeded more conservatively than elsewhere in Europe. Reformers in the Church of England alternated for centuries, between sympathies for catholic traditions and Protestantism, progressively forging a stable compromise between adherence to ancient tradition and Protestantism, which is now sometimes called the via media.

Humanism to Protestantism
The frustrated reformism of the humanists, ushered in by the Renaissance, contributed to a growing impatience among reformers. Erasmus and later figures like Luther and Zwingli would emerge from this debate and eventually contribute to the second major schism of Christendom. Unfortunately for the church, the crisis of theology beginning with William of Ockham in the fourteenth century was occurring in conjunction with the new burgher discontent. Since the breakdown of the philosophical foundations of scholasticism, the new nominalism did not bode well for an institutional church legitimized as an intermediary between man and God. New thinking favored the notion that no religious doctrine can be supported by philosophical arguments, eroding the old alliance between reason and faith of the medieval period laid out by Thomas Aquinas.

The major individualistic reform movements that revolted against medieval scholasticism and the institutions that underpinned it were: humanism, devotionalism, and the observatine tradition. In Germany, “the modern way” or devotionalism caught on in the universities, requiring a redefinition of God, who was no longer a rational governing principle but an arbitrary, unknowable will that cannot be limited. God was now an unknowable absolute ruler, and religion would be more fervent and emotional. Thus, the ensuing revival of Augustinian theology, stating that man cannot be saved by his own efforts but only by the grace of God, would erode the legitimacy of the rigid institutions of the church meant to provide a channel for man to do good works and get into heaven. Humanism, however, was more of an educational reform movement with origins in the Renaissance's revival of classical learning and thought. A revolt against Aristotelian logic, it placed great emphasis on reforming individuals through eloquence as opposed to reason. The European Renaissance laid the foundation for the Northern humanists in its reinforcement of the traditional use of Latin as the great unifying cultural language.

The polarization the scholarly community in Germany over the Reuchlin (1455-1522) affair, attacked by the elite clergy for his study of Hebrew and Jewish texts, brought Luther fully in line with the humanist educational reforms who favored academic freedom. At the same time, the impact of the Renaissance would soon backfire against Southern Europe, also ushering in an age of reform and a repudiation of much of medieval Latin tradition. Led by Erasmus, the humanists condemned various forms of corruption within the Church, forms of corruption that might not have been any more prevalent than during the medieval zenith of the church. Erasmus held that true religion was a matter of inward devotion rather than an outward symbol of ceremony and ritual. Going back to ancient texts, scriptures, from this viewpoint the greatest culmination of the ancient tradition, are the guides to life. Favoring moral reforms and de-emphasizing didactic ritual, Erasmus laid the groundwork for Luther.

Humanism's intellectual anticlericalism would profoundly influence Luther. The increasingly well-educated middle sectors of Northern Germany, namely the educated community and city dwellers would turn to Luther's rethinking of religion to conceptualize their discontent according to the cultural medium of the era. The great rise of the burghers, the desire to run their new businesses free of institutional barriers or outmoded cultural practices, contributed to the appeal of humanist individualism. To many, papal institutions were rigid, especially regarding their views on just price and usury. In the North burghers and monarchs were united in their frustration for not paying any taxes to the nation, but collecting taxes from subjects and sending the revenues disproportionately to the Pope in Italy.

These trends heightened demands for significant reform and revitalization along with anticlericalism. New thinkers began noticing the divide between the priests and the flock. The clergy, for instance, were not always well-educated. Parish priests often did not know Latin and rural parishes often did not have great opportunities for theological education for many at the time. Due to its large landholdings and institutional rigidity, a rigidity to which the excessively large ranks of the clergy contributed, many bishops studied law, not theology, being relegated to the role of property managers trained in administration. While priests emphasized works of religiosity, the respectability of the church began diminishing, especially among well educated urbanites, and especially considering the recent strings of political humiliation, such as the apprehension of Pope Boniface VIII by Philip IV of France, the “Babylonian Captivity,” the Great Schism, and the failure of Conciliar reformism. In a sense, the campaign by Pope Leo X to raise funds to rebuild the St. Peter's Basilica was too much of an excess by the secular Renaissance church, prompting the high-pressure sale of indulgences that rendered the clerical establishments even more disliked in the cities.

Luther, taking the revival of the Augustinian notion of salvation by faith alone to new levels, borrowed from the humanists the sense of individualism, that each man can be his own priest (an attitude likely to find popular support considering the rapid rise of an educated urban middle class in the North), and that the only true authority is the Bible, echoing the reformist zeal of the Conciliar movement and opening up the debate once again on limiting the authority of the Pope. While his ideas called for the sharp redefinition of the dividing lines between the laity and the clergy, his ideas were still, by this point, reformist in nature. Luther's contention that the human will was incapable of following good, however, resulted in his rift with Erasmus finally distinguishing Lutheran reformism from humanism.

Religious Influences for the Reformation

While there were some parallels between certain movements within humanism and teachings later common among the Reformers, the main influence was the Bible itself. The Roman Catholic Church had itself been the main purveyor in Europe of humanism for centuries: the neo-Platonism of the scholastics and the neo-Aristotelianism of Thomas Aquinas and his followers had made humanism part of church dogma. Thus, when Luther and the other reformers adopted the standard of sola scriptura, making the Bible the sole measure of theology, that made the Reformation a reaction against the humanism of that time. Previously, the Scriptures had been seen as the pinnacle of a hierarchy of sacred texts.

Luther himself had been trained as a professor of the Bible and was teaching Bible at the University of Wittenberg when the Bible changed him. He later lamented that he wished he had learned the Bible earlier instead of spending so much time studying classical humanistic authors such as Plato and Aristotle. It appears that he was not familiar with the writings of earlier people who called for reformation, for example, he did not know the teachings of Jan Hus until he was introduced to them by a taunt from Johann Eck that he was teaching the same doctrines.

The Protestants emphasized such concepts as Justification by "faith alone" (not faith and good works or infused righteousness), "Scripture alone" (the Bible as the sole rule of faith, rather than the Bible plus Tradition), "the priesthood of all believers" (eschewing the special authority and power of the Roman Catholic sacramental priesthood), that all people are individually responsible for their status before God such that talk of mediation through any but Christ alone is unbiblical. Because they saw these teachings as stemming from the Bible, they encouraged publication of the Bible in the common language and universal education, for how can people avail themselves of the knowledge of their salvation without the ability to read the Bible?

Part of the revolt was an iconoclasm, seen in John Calvin and Huldrych Zwingli, but particularly amongst the radical reformers. Iconoclastic riots took place in Zürich (in 1523), Copenhagen (1530), Münster (1534), Geneva (1535), Augsburg (1537) and Scotland (1559).

The Reformation did not happen in a vacuum, as there were movements for centuries calling for a return to Biblical teachings, the most famous being from Wyclif and Jan Hus. It is no surprise that their teachings were later found in the Reformation, as they imbibed from the same source.

While it is true that there were calls for religious and doctrinal and moral reformation within and without the institutional church for centuries, apparently it was the invention of the printing press which allowed quick broadcasting of ideas, the rise in nationalistic fervor and popular discontent at the moral corruption in the church to coalesce in support for a reformation as never before. But the spark that started the Reformation and keeps it going even today is the doctrinal issues brought up by the Bible.

The Radical Reformation

Unskilled laborers and peasants recently squeezed from the countryside embraced the most radical theological options opened up by the religious revolution. Peasants and new migrants to the cities had little understanding of economics, so they had no understanding of the increasingly discredited just price concept and the influence of capitalism and mercantilism. They believed that higher prices were the result of unjust, parasitic, and immoral behavior.

Discontented and morally righteous, the lower classes were ready to follow leaders, who urged them to band together against immorality and decadence. They preached against landowners who took control of increasing areas, kings centralizing control and princes looking for increased tax revenues to fund their growing states.

The disadvantaged peasantry turned to radical leaders, to people like the Drummer of Niklashausen and later the Anabaptist preachers. Many of the Anabaptist preachers belonged to the peasant and laboring class.

The Anabaptists and other radical leaders were condemned by the Lutherans and nationalistic Germans. Nearly every country in Europe saw a flare up of failed peasant revolts motivated by religious concerns and executed according to religious doctrine. The Hungarian Peasants' War(1514), the revolt against Charles V in Spain (1520), the discontent of the lower classes in France with the excessive taxes levied by Louis XI, and the secret associations which prepared the way for the great Peasants' War of the lower classes in Germany (1524), show that discontent was not confined to any one country in Europe.

Lutheranism adopted by the German Territorial Princes
Luther, like Erasmus, in the beginning favored maintaining the bishops as an elite class for administrative purposes, though he denied that their succession from the Apostles gave their consecration any special sacramental value. And while Luther rejected many of the Catholic sacraments, as well as salvation by grace alone through both faith and good works (as opposed to the Protestant "faith alone") and indulgences, he firmly upheld the sacraments of Baptism and the Eucharist. Luther favored a reformed theology of the Eucharist called consubstantiation, a doctrine of the presence of Christ in the Eucharist which depended on the faith of the congregation. Traditionally, the consecrated bread and wine were held to become, substantially, the body and blood of Christ (transubstantiation). Transubstantiation was most fully spelled out by the medieval scholastics, who agreed that the elements, once consecrated, remained the body and blood of Christ and could be worshipped as such. According to the doctrine of consubstantiation, the substances of the body and the blood of Christ and of the bread and the wine were held to coexist together in the consecrated Host during the communion service. However, any consecrated bread or wine left over would revert to its former state the moment the service ended.

Luther, along with his colleague Philipp Melanchthon, emphasized this point in his plea for the Reformation at the Reichstag in 1529 amid charges of heresy. But the changes he proposed were of such a fundamental nature that by their own logic they would automatically overthrow the old order; neither the Emperor nor the Church could possibly accept them, as Luther well knew. As was only to be expected, the edict by the Diet of Worms (1521) prohibited all innovations. Meanwhile, in these efforts to retain the guise of a Catholic reformer as opposed to a heretical revolutionary, and to appeal to German princes with his religious condemnation of the peasant revolts backed up by the Doctrine of the Two Kingdoms, Luther's growing conservatism would provoke more radical reformers.

At a religious conference with the Zwinglians in 1529, Melanchthon joined with Luther in opposing a union with Zwingli. There would finally be a schism in the reform movement due to Luther's belief in consubstantiation. His original intention was not schism, but with the Reichstag of Augsburg (1530) a separate Lutheran church finally emerged. In a sense, Luther would take theology further in its deviation from established Catholic dogma, forcing a rift between the humanist Erasmus and Luther. Similarly, Zwingli would further repudiate ritualism, and break with the increasingly conservative Luther.

While it would be an understatement to state that Erasmus, Luther, Zwingli, and Melanchthon regarded the fundamental theological questions quite seriously, their followers tended to split along socio-economic lines. Luther found great support from the new bourgeoisie in Germany's urban centers to overthrow the power of the landowning aristocracy and the Latin clergy, rooted in their control of land and peasant labor, which were the central means of production of the time. And up-and-coming merchants, not yet part of the ruling elite, rallied to Luther's cause. Zwingli, however, appealed to poorer segments of society who lacked the stake in German proto-nationalism among the ambitious, consolidating princes and the new bourgeoisie.

Aside from the enclosing of the lower classes, the middle sectors of Northern Germany, namely the educated community and city dwellers, would turn to religion to conceptualize their discontent according to the cultural medium of the era. The great rise of the burghers, the desire to run their new businesses free of institutional barriers or outmoded cultural practices contributed to the appeal of individualism. To many, papal institutions were rigid, especially regarding their views on just price and usury. In the North, burghers and monarchs were united in their frustration for not paying any taxes to the nation, but collecting taxes from subjects and sending the revenues disproportionately to Italy. In Northern Europe Luther appealed to the growing national consciousness of the German states because he denounced the Pope for involvement in politics as well as religion. Moreover, he backed the nobility, which was now justified to crush the Great Peasant Revolt of 1525 and to confiscate church property by Luther's Doctrine of the Two Kingdoms. This explains the attraction of some territorial princes to Lutheranism, especially its Doctrine of the Two Kingdoms. However, the Elector of Brandenburg, Joachim I, blamed Lutheranism for the revolt and so did others. In Brandenburg, it was only under his successor Joachim II that Lutheranism was established, and the old religion was not formally extinct in Brandenburg until the death of the last Catholic bishop there, Georg von Blumenthal.

With the church subordinate to and the agent of civil authority and peasant rebellions condemned on strict religious terms, Lutheranism and German nationalist sentiment were ideally suited to coincide.

Though Charles V fought the reformation, it is no coincidence either that the reign of his nationalistic predecessor Maximilian I saw the beginning of the Reformation. While the centralized states of western Europe had reached accords with the Vatican permitting them to draw on the rich property of the church for government expenditures, enabling them to form state churches that were greatly autonomous of Rome, similar moves on behalf of the Reich were unsuccessful so long as princes and prince bishops fought reforms to drop the pretension of secular universal empire.

English Reformation
See articles at :Category:English Reformation

Political Reformation
The course of the Reformation was different in England. There had long been a strong strain of anti-clericalism, and England had already given rise to the Lollard movement, which had inspired the Hussites in Bohemia. By the 1520s, however, the Lollards were not an active force, or, at least, certainly not a mass movement. The different character of the English Reformation came rather from the fact that it was driven initially by the political necessities of Henry VIII. Henry had once been a sincere Catholic and had even authored a book strongly criticizing Luther, but he later found it expedient and profitable to break with the Papacy. In 1534 The Act of Supremacy put Henry at the head of the church in England (that is, not the Church of England). Between 1535 and 1540, under Thomas Cromwell, the policy known as the Dissolution of the Monasteries was put into effect. The veneration of Saints, pilgrimages and pilgrim shrines were also attacked. Huge amounts of church land and property passed into the hands of the crown and ultimately into those of the nobility and gentry. The vested interest thus created made for a powerful force in support of the dissolutions.

There were many notable opponents to the Henrician Reformation, such as Thomas More and Bishop John Fisher, who were executed for their opposition. But there was also a growing party of Protestants who were imbued with the Zwinglian and Calvinistic doctrines now current on the Continent. When Henry was destruction of images, and the closing of the chantries. Following a brief Roman Catholic reaction during the reign of Mary 1553-1558, a loose consensus developed during the reign of Elizabeth I, though this point is one of considerable debate among historians. Yet it is the so-called Elizabethan Settlement to which the origins of Anglicanism are traditionally ascribed. The compromise was uneasy and was capable of veering between extreme Calvinism on the one hand and Arminianism on the other, but compared to the bloody and chaotic state of affairs in contemporary France, it was relatively successful until the Puritan Revolution or English Civil War in the seventeenth century.

The success of the Counter-Reformation on the Continent and the growth of a Puritan party dedicated to further Protestant reform polarised the Elizabethan Age, although it was not until the 1640s that England underwent religious strife comparable to that which her neighbours had suffered some generations before.

Early Puritan Movement

The early Puritan Movement (late 16th century-17th century) was Reformed or Calvinist and was a movement for reform in the Church of England. Its origins lay in the discontent with the Elizabethan Religious Settlement. The desire was for the Church of England to resemble more closely the Protestant churches of Europe, especially Geneva. The Puritans objected to ornaments and ritual in the churches as idolatrous (vestments, surplices, organs, genuflection), which they castigated as "popish pomp and rags." (See Vestments controversy.) They also objected to ecclesiastical courts. They refused to endorse completely all of the ritual directions and formulas of the Book of Common Prayer; the imposition of its liturgical order by legal force and inspection sharpened Puritanism into a definite opposition movement.

The later Puritan movement were often referred to as Dissenters and Nonconformists and eventually led to the formation of various reformed denominations.

Resources

Printed Resources

- Belloc, Hilaire (1928), How the Reformation Happened, Tan Books & Publishing. ISBN 0-89555-465-8 (a Roman Catholic Perspective)

- Braaten, Carl E. and Robert W. Jenson. The Catholicity of the Reformation. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1996. ISBN 0-8028-4220-8

- Cameron, Euan. The European Reformation. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1991. (A standard textbook).

- Estep, William R. Renaissance & Reformaton. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1986. ISBN 0-8028-0050-5

- Gonzales, Justo. The Story of Christianity, Vol. 2: The Reformation to the Present Day. San Francisco: Harper, 1985. ISBN 0060633166

- Pelikan, Jaroslav. Reformation of Church and Dogma (1300-1700). Chicago: U Chicago Press, 1984 (focuses on religious teachings)

- Kolb, Robert. Confessing the Faith: Reformers Define the Church, 1530-1580. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1991. ISBN 0-570-04556-8

- MacCulloch, Diarmaid. The Reformation: A History. New York: Penguin 2003.

- Spitz, Lewis W. The Protestant Reformation: Major Documents. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1997. ISBN 0-570-04993-8

- Spitz, Lewis W. The Renaissance and Reformation Movements: Volume I, The Renaissance. Revised Edition. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1987. ISBN 0-570-03818-9

- Spitz, Lewis W. The Renaissance and Reformation Movements: Volume II, The Reformation. Revised Edition. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1987. ISBN 0-570-03819-7

Online Resources
Historical Materials

- Timelines

- Timeline for Renaissance & Reformation

- Timeline of the Protestant Reformation in England

- History of Protestantism

- Middle Ages in history

- A list of Protestant reformers

Primary Materials

- [http://www.iclnet.org/pub/resources/text/wittenberg/luther/web/ninetyfive.html Martin Luther's Ninety-five Theses]

- The Book of Common Prayer

- The Book of Concord

External links

- [http://history.hanover.edu/early/prot.html Internet Archive of Related Texts and Documents]

- [http://www.lepg.org/religion.htm A summary of the Reformation]

- [http://www.newgenevacenter.org/west/reformation.htm An Overview of the Protestant Reformation]

Category:Protestantism
Category:History of Europe

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King Henry VIII
Henry VIII (28 June 1491 – 28 January 1547) was King of England and Lord of Ireland (later King of Ireland) from 22 April 1509 until his death. He was the second monarch of the Tudor dynasty, succeeding his father, Henry VII. He is famous for having been married six times and for wielding the most untrammelled power of any British monarch. Notable events during his reign included the break with Rome and the subsequent establishment of the independent Church of England, the Dissolution of the Monasteries, and the union of England and Wales.

Several significant pieces of legislation were enacted during Henry VIII's reign. They included the several Acts which severed the English Church from the Roman Catholic Church and established Henry as the supreme head of the Church in England, the Laws in Wales Acts 1535-1542 (which united England and Wales into one nation), the Buggery Act 1533, the first anti-sodomy enactment in England; and the Witchcraft Act 1542, which punished 'invoking or conjuring an evil spirit' with death.

Henry is known to have been an avid gambler and dice player. He excelled at sport, especially royal tennis, during his youth. He was also an accomplished musician, author, and poet; according to legend, he wrote the popular folk song Greensleeves, along with the lesser-known Past Time With Good Company. He was also involved in the construction and improvement of several buildings, including King's College Chapel, Christ Church, Oxford, Hampton Court Palace, Nonsuch Palace and Westminster Abbey.

Early life

Westminster Abbey
Born at the Palace of Placentia at Greenwich, Henry was the third child of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York. Only three of Henry's six siblings, Arthur (the Prince of Wales), Margaret and Mary, survived infancy. His Lancastrian father acquired the throne by right of conquest, his army defeating and killing the last Plantagenet king Richard III, but further solidified his hold by marrying Elizabeth, the daughter of the Yorkist king Edward IV. In 1493, the young Henry was appointed Constable of Dover Castle and Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports. In 1494, he was created Duke of York. He was subsequently appointed Earl Marshal of England and Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, though still a child.

In 1501 he attended the wedding of his elder brother Arthur and Catherine of Aragon, who were at the time only about fifteen and sixteen years old, respectively. The two were sent to spend time in Wales, as was customary for the heir-apparent and his wife, but Arthur caught an infection and died. Consequently, at the age of eleven, Henry, Duke of York, found himself heir-apparent to the Throne. Soon thereafter, he was created Prince of Wales.

Henry VII was still eager to maintain the marital alliance between England and Spain through a marriage between Henry, Prince of Wales, and Catherine. Since the Prince of Wales sought to marry his brother's widow, he first had to obtain a dispensation from the Pope from the impediment of affinity. Catherine maintained that her first marriage was never consummated, if she were correct, no papal dispensation would have been necessary, but merely a dissolution of ratified marriage. Nonetheless, both the English and Spanish parties agreed on the necessity of a papal dispensation for the removal of all doubts regarding the legitimacy of the marriage. Due to the impatience of Catherine's mother, Queen Isabella, the Pope hastily granted his dispensation in a Papal Bull. Thus, fourteen months after her husband's death, Catherine found herself engaged to his brother, the Prince of Wales. By 1505, however, Henry VII lost interest in an alliance with Spain, and the young Prince of Wales was forced to declare that his betrothal had been arranged without his assent.

Early reign
1505

Henry ascended the throne in 1509 upon his father's death. Catherine's father, the Aragonese King Ferdinand II, sought to control England through his daughter, and consequently insisted on her marriage to the new English King. Henry wed Catherine of Aragon about nine weeks after his accession on June 11 1509 at Greenwich, despite the concerns of Pope Julius II and William Warham, the Archbishop of Canterbury, regarding the marriage's validity. They were both crowned at Westminster Abbey on 24 June 1509. Queen Catherine's first pregnancy ended in a miscarriage in 1510. She gave birth to a son, Henry, on 1 January 1511, but he only lived until February 22.

For two years after Henry's accession, Richard Fox, the Bishop of Winchester and Lord Privy Seal, and William Warham controlled matters of state. From 1511 onwards, however, power was held by the ecclesiastic Thomas Wolsey. In 1511, Henry joined the Holy League, a body of European rulers opposed to the French King Louis XII. The League also included such European rulers as Pope Julius II, the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I and Ferdinand II, with whom Henry also signed the Treaty of Westminster. Henry personally joined the English Army as they crossed the English Channel into France, and took part in sieges and battles.

In 1514, however, Ferdinand left the alliance, and the other parties made peace with the French. Irritation towards Spain led to discussion of a divorce with Queen Catherine. However, upon the accession of the French King Francis I in 1515, England and France grew antagonistic, and Henry became reconciled with Ferdinand. In 1516, Queen Catherine gave birth to a girl, Mary, encouraging Henry in the belief that he could still have a male heir despite his wife's previous failed pregnancies (one stillbirth, one miscarriage and two short-lived infants).

Ferdinand died in 1516, to be succeeded by his grandson (Queen Catherine's nephew) Charles V. By October 1518, Wolsey had engineered the Papacy-led Treaty of London to resemble an English triumph of foreign diplomacy, placing England at the centre of a new European alliance with the ostensible aim of repelling Moorish invasions through Spain, which was the Pope's original aim. In 1519, when Maximilian also died, Wolsey, who was by that time a Cardinal, secretly proposed Henry as a candidate for the post of Holy Roman Emperor, though supporting the French King Francis in public. In the end, however, the prince-electors settled on Charles. The subsequent rivalry between Francis and Charles allowed Henry to act as a mediator between them. Henry came to hold the balance of power in Europe. Both Francis and Charles sought Henry's favour, the former in a dazzling and spectacular manner at the Field of Cloth of Gold, and the latter more solemnly at Kent. After 1521, however, England's influence in Europe began to wane. Henry entered into an alliance with Charles V, and Francis I was quickly defeated. Charles' reliance on Henry subsided, as did England's power in Europe.

Henry's interest in European affairs extended to the attack on Luther's German revolution. In 1521, he dedicated his Defence of the Seven Sacraments, which earned him the title of "Defender of the Faith" (Defensor Fidei. Prior to this, his title had been "inclitissmus", meaning "most illustrious". The later title was maintained even after his break with Rome, and is still used by the British monarch today.

The King's Great Matter

Henry VIII's accession was the first peaceful one England had witnessed in many years; however, the new Tudor dynasty's legitimacy could yet be tested. The English people seemed distrustful of female rulers, and Henry felt that only a male heir could secure the throne. Although Queen Catherine had been pregnant at least seven times (for the last time in 1518), only one child, the Princess Mary, had survived beyond infancy. Henry had previously been happy with mistresses, including Mary Boleyn and Elizabeth Blount, with whom he had had a bastard son, Henry Fitzroy. In 1526, when it became clear that Queen Catherine could have no further children, he began to pursue Mary Boleyn's sister, Anne. Although it was almost certainly Henry's desire for a male heir that made him determined to divorce Catherine, he was very infatuated with Anne, despite her child-bearing inexperience and famously plain looks.

Henry's long and arduous attempt to end his marriage to Queen Catherine became known as "The King's Great Matter". Cardinal Wolsey and William Warham quietly began an inquiry into the validity of her marriage to Henry. Queen Catherine, however, testified that her marriage to Arthur, Prince of Wales had never been consummated, and that there was therefore no impediment to her subsequent marriage to Henry. The inquiry could proceed no further, and was dropped.

Without informing Cardinal Wolsey, Henry directly appealed to the Holy See. He sent his secretary William Knight to Rome to argue that Julius II's Bull was obtained by trickery, and consequently void. In addition, he requested Pope Clement VII to grant a dispensation allowing him to marry any woman, even in the first degree of affinity; such a dispensation was necessary because Henry had previously had intercourse with Anne Boleyn's sister Mary. Knight found that Pope Clement VII was practically the prisoner of the Emperor Charles V. He had difficulty gaining access to the Pope, and when he finally did, he could accomplish little. Clement VII did not agree to annul the marriage, but he did grant the desired dispensation, probably presuming that the dispensation would be of no effect as long as Henry remained married to Catherine.

Being advised of the King's predicament, Cardinal Wolsey sent Stephen Gardiner and Edward Fox to Rome. Perhaps fearing Queen Catherine's nephew, Charles V, Pope Clement VII initially demurred. Fox was sent back with a commission authorising the commencement of proceedings, but the restrictions imposed made it practically meaningless. Gardiner strove for a "decretal commission", which decided the points of law beforehand, and left only questions of fact to be decided. Clement VII was persuaded to accept Gardiner's proposal, and permitted Cardinal Wolsey and Lorenzo Cardinal Campeggio to try the case jointly. His decretal commission was issued in secret; it was not to be shown to anybody, and was to always remain in Cardinal Campeggio's possession. Points of law were already settled in the commission; the Papal Bull authorising Henry's marriage to Catherine was to be declared void if the grounds alleged therein were false. For instance, the Bull would be void if it falsely asserted that the marriage was absolutely necessary to maintain the Anglo-Spanish alliance.

Cardinal Campeggio arrived in England in 1528. Proceedings, however, were brought to a halt when the Spanish produced a second document allegedly granting the necessary dispensation. It was asserted that, a few months before he had granted papal dispensation in a public Bull, Pope Julius II had secretly granted the same in a private Brief sent to Spain. The decretal commission, however, only made mention of the Bull; it did not authorise Cardinal Campeggio and Cardinal Wolsey to determine the validity of the Brief. For eight months, the parties wrangled over the authenticity of the Brief. Meanwhile, Queen Catherine appealed to her nephew, Charles V, who pressured the Pope into recalling Cardinal Campeggio to Rome in 1529.

Angered with Cardinal Wolsey for the delay, Henry stripped him of his wealth and power. He was charged with præmunire — undermining the King's authority by agreeing to represent the Pope — but died on his way to trial. With Cardinal Wolsey fell other powerful ecclesiastics in England; laymen were appointed to offices such as those of Lord Chancellor and Lord Privy Seal, which were formerly confined to clergymen.

Power then passed to Sir Thomas More (the new Lord Chancellor), Thomas Cranmer (the Archbishop of Canterbury), and Thomas Cromwell, 1st Earl of Essex (the Chancellor of the Exchequer). On 25 January 1533, Cranmer participated in the wedding of Henry and Anne Boleyn. In May, Cranmer pronounced Henry's marriage to Catherine void, and shortly thereafter declared the marriage to Anne valid. The Princess Mary was deemed illegitimate, and was replaced as heiress-presumptive by Queen Anne's new daughter, the Princess Elizabeth. Catherine lost the title "Queen", and became the Dowager Princess of Wales; Mary was no longer a "Princess", but a mere "Lady". The Dowager Princess of Wales would die of cancer in 1536.

Sir Thomas More, who had left office in 1532, accepted that Parliament could make Anne Queen, but refused to acknowledge its religious authority. Instead, he held that the Pope remained the head of the Church. As a result, he was charged with high treason, and beheaded in 1535. Judging him to be a martyr, the Catholic Church later made him a saint.

Religious upheaval

The Pope responded to these events by excommunicating Henry in July 1533. Considerable religious upheaval followed. Urged by Thomas Cromwell, Parliament passed several Acts that sealed the breach with Rome in the spring of 1534. The Statute in Restraint of Appeals prohibited appeals from English ecclesiastical courts to the Pope. It also prevented the Church from making any regulations without the King's consent. The Ecclesiastical Appointments Act 1534 required the clergy to elect Bishops nominated by the Sovereign. The Act of Supremacy 1534 declared that the King was "the only Supreme Head in Earth of the Church of England"; the Treasons Act 1534 made it high treason, punishable by death, to refuse to acknowledge the King as such. The Pope was denied sources of revenue such as Peter's Pence.

Rejecting the decisions of the Pope, Parliament validated the marriage between Henry and Anne with the Act of Succession 1534. Catherine's daughter, the Lady Mary, was declared illegitimate, and Anne's issue were declared next in the line of succession. All adults were required to acknowledge the Act's provisions; those who refused to do so were liable to imprisonment for life. The publisher or printer of any literature alleging that Henry's marriage to Anne was invalid was automatically guilty of high treason, and could be punished by death.

Opposition to Henry's religious policies was quickly suppressed. Several dissenting monks were tortured and executed. Cromwell, for whom was created the post of "Vicegerent in Spirituals", was authorised to visit monasteries, ostensibly to ensure that they followed royal instructions, but in reality to assess their wealth. In 1536, an Act of Parliament allowed Henry to seize the possessions of the lesser monasteries (those with annual incomes of £200 or less).

In 1536, Queen Anne began to lose Henry's favour. After the Princess Elizabeth's birth, Queen Anne had two pregnancies that ended in either miscarriage or stillbirth. Henry VIII, meanwhile, had begun to turn his attentions to another lady of his court, Jane Seymour. Perhaps encouraged by Thomas Cromwell, Henry had Anne arrested on charges of using witchcraft to trap Henry into marrying her, of having adulterous relationships with five other men, of incest with her brother George Boleyn, Viscount Rochford, of injuring the King and of conspiring to kill him, which amounted to treason; the charges were most likely fabricated. The court trying the case was presided over by Anne's own uncle, Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk. In May 1536, the Court condemned Anne and her brother to death, either by burning at the stake or by decapitation, whichever the King pleased. The other four men Queen Anne had allegedly been involved with were to be hanged, drawn and quartered. Lord Rochford was beheaded soon after the trial ended; the four others implicated had their sentences commuted from hanging, drawing and quartering to decapitation. Anne was also beheaded soon thereafter.

Birth of a Prince
Only days after Anne's execution in 1536, Henry married Jane Seymour. The Act of Succession 1536 declared Henry's children by Queen Jane to be next in the line of succession, and declared both the Lady Mary and the Lady Elizabeth illegitimate, thus excluding them. The King was granted the power to further determine the line of succession in his will. Jane gave birth to a son, the Prince Edward, in 1537, and died two weeks thereafter. After Jane's death, the entire court mourned with Henry for some time. Henry also considered her to be his only "true" wife, being the only one who had given him the male heir he so desperately sought.

Major Acts
At about the same time as his marriage to Jane Seymour, Henry granted his assent to the Laws in Wales Act 1535, which legally annexed Wales, uniting England and Wales into one nation. The Act provided for the sole use of English in official proceedings in Wales, inconveniencing the numerous speakers of the Welsh language.

Henry continued with his persecution of his religious opponents. In 1536, an uprising known as the Pilgrimage of Grace broke out in Northern England. To appease the rebellious Roman Catholics, Henry agreed to allow Parliament to address their concerns. Furthermore, he agreed to grant a general pardon to all those involved. He kept neither promise, and a second uprising occurred in 1537. As a result, the leaders of the rebellion were convicted of treason and executed. In 1538, Henry sanctioned the destruction of shrines to Roman Catholic Saints. In 1539, England's remaining monasteries were all dissolved, and their property transferred to the Crown. As a reward for his role, Thomas Cromwell was created Earl of Essex. Abbots and priors lost their seats in the House of Lords; only archbishops and bishops came to comprise the ecclesiastical element of the body. The Lords Spiritual, as members of the clergy with seats in the House of Lords were known, were for the first time outnumbered by the Lords Temporal.

Later years
Lords Temporal

Henry's only surviving son, the Prince Edward, Duke of Cornwall, was not a healthy child. Therefore, Henry desired to marry once again to ensure that a male could succeed him. Thomas Cromwell, 1st Earl of Essex suggested Anne, the sister of the Protestant Duke of Cleves, who was seen as an important ally in case of a Roman Catholic attack on England. Hans Holbein the Younger was dispatched to Cleves to paint a portrait of Anne for the King. After regarding Holbein's flattering portrayal, and urged by the complimentary description of Anne given by his courtiers, Henry agreed to wed Anne. On Anne's arrival in England, Henry is said to have found her utterly unattractive, privately calling her a "Flanders Mare". She was painted totally without any signs of her pockmarked face. Nevertheless, he married her on 6 January 1540.

Soon thereafter, however, Henry desired to end the marriage, not only because of his personal feelings but also because of political considerations. The Duke of Cleves had become engaged in a dispute with the Holy Roman Emperor, with whom Henry had no desire to quarrel. Queen Anne was intelligent enough not to impede Henry's quest for an annulment. She testified that her marriage was never consummated. Henry was said to have came into the room each night and merely kissed his new bride on the forehead before sleeping. The marriage was subsequently annulled on the grounds that Anne had previously been contracted to marry another European nobleman. She received the title of "The King's Sister", and was granted Hever Castle, the former residence of Anne Boleyn's family. The Earl of Essex, meanwhile, fell out of favour for his role in arranging the marriage, and was subsequently attainted and beheaded. The office of Vicegerent in Spirituals, which had been specifically created for him, was not filled, and still remains vacant.

On 28 July 1540 (the same day Lord Essex was executed) Henry married the young Catherine Howard, Anne Boleyn's first cousin. Soon after her marriage, however, Queen Catherine may have had an affair with the courtier, Thomas Culpeper. She also employed Francis Dereham, who was previously informally engaged to her and had an affair with her prior to her marriage, as her secretary. Thomas Cranmer, who was opposed to the powerful Catholic Howard family, brought evidence of Queen Catherine's activities to the King's notice. Though Henry originally refused to believe the allegations, he allowed Cranmer to conduct an investigation, which resulted in Queen Catherine's implication. When questioned, the Queen could have admitted a prior contract to marry Dereham, which would have made her subsequent marriage to Henry invalid, but she instead claimed that Dereham had forced her to enter into an adulterous relationship. Dereham, meanwhile, exposed Queen Catherine's relationship with Thomas Culpeper.

In December 1541, Culpeper and Dereham were executed. Catherine was condemned not by a trial, but by an Act of Attainder passed by Parliament. The Act recited the evidence against the Queen, and Henry would have been obliged to listen to the entire text before granting the Royal Assent. Because "the repetition of so grievous a Story and the recital of so infamous a crime" in the King's presence "might reopen a Wound already closing in the Royal Bosom", a special clause permitting Commissioners to grant the Royal Assent on the King's behalf was inserted in the Act. This method of granting the Royal Assent had never been used before, but, in later reigns, it came to replace the traditional personal appearance of the Sovereign in Parliament.

Catherine's marriage was annulled shortly before her execution. As was the case with Anne Boleyn, Catherine Howard could not have technically been guilty of adultery, as the marriage was officially null and void from the beginning. Again, this point was ignored, and Catherine was executed on 13 February 1542. She was only about eighteen years old at the time.

Henry married his last wife, the wealthy widow Catherine Parr, in 1543. She argued with Henry over religion; she was a Protestant, but Henry remained a Catholic. This behaviour almost led to her undoing, but she saved herself by a show of submissiveness. She helped reconcile Henry with his first two daughters, the Lady Mary and the Lady Elizabeth. In 1544, an Act of Parliament put them back in the line of succession after the Prince Edward, Duke of Cornwall, though they were still deemed illegitimate. The same Act allowed Henry to determine further succession to the throne in his will.

A mnemonic for the fates of Henry's wives is "divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived". An alternative version is "King Henry the Eighth, to six wives he was wedded: One died, one survived, two divorced, two beheaded". The doggerel, however, may be misleading. Firstly, Henry was never divorced from any of his wives; rather, his marriages to them were annulled. Secondly, four marriages — not two — ended in annulments. The marriages to Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard were annulled shortly before their executions. Ironically the annulments undermined the process under which Boleyn and Howard were executed: annulments operate on the basis that there had never been a marriage. If they had never been married to him, they could not have committed adultery, one of the central charges brought against them. However this technicality did not stop their execution.

Death and succession
doggerel
Later in life, Henry was grossly overweight, with a waist measurement of 54 inches (137 cm), and possibly suffered from gout. The well known theory that he suffered from syphilis was first promoted approximately 100 years after his death. Henry's increased size dates from a jousting accident in 1536. He suffered a thigh wound which not only prevented him from taking exercise, but also gradually became ulcerated and may have indirectly led to his death, which occurred on 28 January 1547 at the Palace of Whitehall. He died on what would have been his father's 90th birthday. Henry VIII was buried in St George's Chapel in Windsor Castle, next to his wife Jane Seymour. Within a little more than a decade after his death, all three of his children sat on the English throne.

Under the Act of Succession 1544, Henry's only surviving son, Edward, inherited the Crown, becoming Edward VI. Edward was the first Protestant monarch to rule England. Since Edward was only nine years old at the time, he could not exercise actual power. Henry's will designated sixteen executors to serve on a council of regency until Edward reached the age of eighteen. The executors chose Edward Seymour, 1st Earl of Hertford, Jane Seymour's elder brother, to be Lord Protector of the Realm. They required, however, that Lord Hertford "not do any act but with the advice and consent of the rest of the co-executors". Nonetheless, Lord Hertford seized power to become the sole Regent. He was overthrown by John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland and executed for treason. The Duke of Northumberland, however, did not make himself Lord Protector; instead, he urged Edward to declare his majority before becoming eighteen years old, thereby transgressing Henry VIII's will.

Under the Act of Succession 1544 and under Henry VIII's will, Edward was to be succeeded (in default of his issue) by Henry VIII's daughter by Catherine of Aragon, the Lady Mary. If the Lady Mary did not have children, she was to be succeeded by his daughter by Anne Boleyn, the Lady Elizabeth. Finally, if the Lady Elizabeth also did not have children, she was to be followed by the descendants of Henry VIII's deceased sister, Mary Tudor, Duchess of Suffolk. Edward VI and his advisors, however, had different designs. As he lay on his deathbed, Edward created a will that purported to contradict the provisions of Henry's will. The Lady Mary and the Lady Elizabeth were excluded from the line of succession as illegitimate. Frances Brandon, Duchess of Suffolk (daughter of Mary Tudor, Duchess of Suffolk) was laid aside because Edward feared that her husband Henry Grey, 1st Duke of Suffolk might claim the Crown for himself. Edward finally settled on the Lady Jane Grey, the daughter of the Duchess of Suffolk and the daughter-in-law of the powerful Duke of Northumberland. Upon Edward's decease in 1553, the Lady Jane was proclaimed Queen. Under the law, however, she should not have succeeded; an Act of Parliament specifically permitted Henry to devise the Crown in his will, but no similar legislation had been passed for Edward. With this justification, Mary deposed and executed Jane, taking the Crown for herself.

When Mary I died without issue in 1558, she was succeeded by her sister Elizabeth. Elizabeth I did not marry or name an heir, causing a succession crisis. To prevent the Scottish from becoming the dynastic family of Europe, Elizabeth I ordered the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots to try to prevent her from taking the throne. Under Henry VIII's will, Elizabeth was supposed to be succeeded by the heir of Mary Tudor, Duchess of Suffolk (the Lady Anne Stanley). Elizabeth was actually succeeded, however, by James VI, King of Scots. James was the son of Mary, Queen of Scots. He was already a powerful ruler in Scotland, and was Elizabeth's closest living relative. He argued that his hereditary right to succeed was greater than the statutory right of Lady Anne. James was sufficiently powerful, and his opponents weak; thus, his succession faced little opposition. James VI became James I, the first Stuart King of England.

Legacy
In modern times, Henry VIII has become one of the most popular historical kings of the English monarchy. This is mainly based on the common perception of his larger than life character as an over-eating, womanising bon vivant, which in turn is based on somewhat exaggerated or apocryphal stories of his life. In 2002, Henry VIII placed 40th in a BBC-sponsored poll on the 100 Greatest Britons.

Henry VIII was the subject of William Shakespeare's historical play, Henry VIII: All Is True. The play, however, has never been one of Shakespeare's more popular plays. Curiously, it was Henry VIII that was playing on June 29 1613 when the Globe Theatre burnt down.

There have been many films about Henry and his court. Two that bear mention are The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933), starring Charles Laughton, whose performance earned him an Academy Award, and The Six Wives of Henry VIII (1972), starring Keith Michell. Richard Burton and Genevieve Bujold were nominated for Academy Awards for Best Actor and Best Actress for their roles as Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn in Anne of the Thousand Days (1969). Henry, played by Robert Shaw, also appears as one of the main characters in the multiple-Oscar-winning movie about Thomas More, A Man for All Seasons (1966), based upon Robert Bolt's play of the same name.

Henry was almost certainly the inspiration for the title of the popular song "I'm Henery the Eighth, I Am" (1911), recorded by Harry Champion and later by Herman's Hermits; the actual song, however, is about a man named Henry whose wife has been married to seven different individuals, all named Henry.

An episode of the 1960s American sitcom Bewitched had Samantha Stevens staving off a lustful Henry's intentions to make her his next wife. Sid James played Henry in the movie Carry On Henry (1970), which portrayed the relationship between the King and two fictitious wives ("Marie of Normandy" and "Bettina", a mistress). In 1973, Rick Wakeman released a rock concept album on The Six Wives of Henry VIII, his first solo album after splitting from Yes. Henry's life was the subject of a famous but inaccurate Simpsons television episode in 2004, in which Homer Simpson played the King.

Style and arms
Henry VIII was the first English monarch to regularly use the style "Majesty", though the alternatives "Highness" and "Grace" were also used from time to time.

Several changes were made to the royal style during his reign. Henry originally used the style "Henry the Eighth, by the Grace of God, King of England, France and Lord of Ireland". In 1521, pursuant to a grant from Pope Leo X rewarding a book by Henry attacking Martin Luther and defending Catholicism, the royal style became "Henry the Eighth, by the Grace of God, King of England and France, Defender of the Faith and Lord of Ireland". After the breach with Rome, Pope Paul III rescinded the grant of the title "Defender of the Faith", but an Act of Parliament declared that it remained valid.

In 1535, Henry added the "supremacy phrase" to the royal style, which became "Henry the Eighth, by the Grace of God, King of England and France, Defender of the Faith, Lord of Ireland and of the Church of England in Earth Supreme Head". In 1536, the phrase "of the Church of England" changed to "of the Church of England and also of Ireland".

In 1542, Henry changed the title "Lord of Ireland" to "King of Ireland" after being advised that many Irish people regarded the Pope as the true head of their country, with the Lord acting as a mere representative. The style "Henry the Eighth, by the Grace of God, King of England, France and Ireland, Defender of the Faith and of the Church of England and also of Ireland in Earth Supreme Head" remained in use until the end of Henry's reign.

Henry's motto was Coure Loyall (true heart) and he had this embroidered on his clothes in the form of a heart symbol and with the word 'loyall'. His emblem was the Tudor rose and the Beaufort portcullis.

Henry VIII's arms were the same as those used by his predecessors since Henry IV: Quarterly, Azure three fleurs-de-lys Or (for France) and Gules three lions passant guardant in pale Or (for England).

Issue

- Note: Of Henry VIII's reputedly illegitimate children, only the Duke of Richmond and Somerset was formally acknowledged by the King. The paternity of his other alleged illegitimate children is not fully established. There may also have been other illegitimate children born to short-term mistresses who we no longer know of.

See also

- List of British monarchs

- Church of England

- Annulment

- Divorce

- Protestant Reformation

- English Kings of France

- Erasmus' Correspondents

- I'm Henery the Eighth, I Am

References

- Bowle, John. (1964). Henry VIII: A Study of Power in Action Boston: Little, Brown.

- [http://tudorhistory.org/wives/ Eakins, L. E. (2004). "The Six Wives of Henry VIII".]

- "Henry VIII". (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica, 11th ed. London: Cambridge University Press.

- [http://www.luminarium.org/renlit/tudor.htm Jokinen, A. (2004). "Henry VIII (1491–1547)".]

- [http://www.pbs.org/wnet/sixwives/ Public Broadcasting Service. (2003). "The Six Wives of Henry VIII".]

- [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07222a.htm Thurston, H. (1910). "Henry VIII". The Catholic Encyclopedia. (Vol. VII). New York: Robert Appleton Company.]

- [http://www.luminarium.org/renlit/vallieres.htm Vallieres, S. (1999). "Tudor Succession Problems"]

- Weir, Alison; The Six Wives of Henry VIII (Bodley Head, London, 1991)

- Bryant, M. (2001). Private Lives London: Cassell

External links

- [http://www.badley.info/history/Henry-VIII-England.biog.html Henry VIII World History Database]

- [http://www.tudor-portraits.com Buehler, Edward. (2004). "Tudor and Elizabethan Portraits".]

- [http://www.tudorplace.com.ar/aboutHenryVIII.htm Castelli, Jorge H. (2004). "Henry VIII".]

- [http://www.archsoc.com/games/Henry.html Stevens, Garry. (2003). "Henry VIII: Intrigue in the Tudor Court".]

- [http://members.ozemail.com.au/~tperrott/sirjohn.htm Perrott, Terry. (2004). "Sir John Perrott".]

Category:1491 births
Category:1547 deaths
Category:Londoners
Category:House of Tudor
Category:Heirs to the English & British thrones
Category:English monarchs
Category:Earls Marshal
Category:Knights of the Garter
Category:Knights of the Golden Fleece
Category:History of Wales
Category:Lords Warden of the Cinque Ports
Category:Dukes in the Peerage of England

ko:잉글랜드의 헨리 8세

ja:ヘンリー8世 (イングランド王)

simple:Henry VIII of England

Protestant
Protestantism is a movement within Christianity, representing a split from within the Roman Catholic Church during the mid-to-late Renaissance in Europe —a period known as the Protestant Reformation.

Commonly considered one of the three major branches of Christianity (along with Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy), the term "Protestant" represents a diverse range of theological and social perspectives, churches and related organizations.

Definition and origins

Originally, "protestant" meant "to be a witness for something" rather than "to be against something", as the current popular interpretation of the word seems to imply. The prefix "pro" means "for" in Latin. The Latin adjective "protestans" refers to "a person who gives public testimony for something or who proves or demonstrates something." The term Protestant originally applied to the group of princes and imperial cities who "protested" the decision by the 1529 Diet of Speyer to reverse course, and enforce the 1521 Edict of Worms. The 1521 edict forbade Lutheran teachings within the Holy Roman Empire. The 1526 session of the Diet had agreed to toleration of Lutheran teachings (on the basis of Cuius regio, eius religio) until a General Council could be held to settle the question, but by 1529, the Catholic forces felt they had gathered enough power to end the toleration without waiting for a Council.

In a broader sense of the word, Protestant began to be used as the collective name for a sudden movement of separation from the Roman Catholic Church, the beginning of which is ordinarily connected with the public disputes raised by Martin Luther. Later, John Calvin, French theologian among the Swiss; Zwinglian, and Reformed churches figured prominently in a movement that embraced a wider, more international diversity of churches. A third major branch of the Reformation, which encountered conflict with the Catholics, as well as with the Lutherans and the Reformed, is sometimes called the Radical Reformation. Some Western, non-Catholic, groups are labeled as Protestant (such as the Religious Society of Friends, for example), even if the sect acknowledges no historical connection to Luther, Calvin or the Roman Catholic Church.

In German-speaking and Scandinavian lands, the word "Protestant" still refers to Lutheran churches in contrast to Reformed churches, while the common designation for all churches originating from the Reformation is "Evangelical".

As an intellectual movement, Protestantism grew out of the Renaissance and universities, attracting some learned intellectuals, as well as politicians, professionals, and skilled tradesmen and artisans. The new technology of the printing press allowed Protestant ideas to spread rapidly, as well as aiding in the dissemination of translations of the Bible in native tongues. Nascent Protestant social ideals of liberty of conscience, and individual freedom, were formed through continuous confrontation with the authority of the Bishop of Rome, and the hierarchy of the Catholic priesthood. The Protestant movement away from the constraints of tradition, toward greater emphasis on individual conscience, anticipated later developments of democratization, and the so-called "Enlightenment" of later centuries.

Basic theological tenets of the Reformation
During the Reformation, several Latin slogans emerged, illustrating the Reformers' concern that the authorities of the Church had distorted the message of justification before God, and salvation in Jesus Christ. The Reformers believed it was necessary to return to the simplicity of the Gospel in terms of the issues designated by these slogans. A protestant is a member or adherent of any denomination of the Western Christian church that rejects papal authority and some fundamental Roman Catholic doctrines, and believes in justification by faith.

The Solas

There were five Solas, four discussed here. The fifth, Soli deo gloria (to God alone the glory), was intended to underlie the other four. These slogans essentially became rallying cries to challenge the problems the Reformers believed they had identified, which are:

- Solus Christus: Christ alone.
:The Protestants characterized the dogma concerning the Pope as Christ's representative head of the Church on earth, the concept of meritorious works, and the Roman idea of a treasury of the merits of saints, as a denial that Christ is the only mediator between God and man.

- Sola scriptura: Scripture alone.
:Protestants believed that the Roman Catholic church obscured the teaching of the Bible, and undermined its authority, by following Tradition, regardless of whether it over-ruled or added to the doctrines of Scripture.

- Sola fide: Faith alone.
:The Protestants characterized the Roman Catholic concept of meritorious works, of penance and indulgences, masses for the dead, the treasury of the merits of saints and martyrs, a ministering priesthood who hears confessions, and purgatory, as reliance upon other means for justification, in addition to faith in Jesus and his work on the cross.

- Sola gratia: Grace alone.
:The Roman Catholic view of the means of salvation was believed by the Protestants to be a mixture of reliance upon the grace of God, and confidence in the merits of one's own works, performed in love. The Reformers posited that salvation is entirely comprehended in God's gifts, (i.e. God's act of free grace) dispensed by the Holy Spirit according to the redemptive work of Jesus Christ alone. Consequently, they argued that a sinner is not accepted by God on account of the change wrought in the believer by God's grace, and indeed, that the believer is accepted without any regard for the merit of his works - for no one deserves salvation.

Naturally, it proved easier to advocate separation from the Catholic Church (as the English Puritan "separatists" eventually did), than to form a single, positively united alternative. Also, the violent reaction by the Catholic leadership towards the Protestants certainly was designed to stamp them out, to make the problem "go away", not to solve it. On the theological front, the Protestant movement soon began to coalesce into several distinct branches. One of the central points of divergence was controversy over the Lord's Supper.

Real presence in the Lord's Supper

Although early Protestants were in general agreement against the Roman Catholic dogma of transubstantiation, which teaches that the substance of the bread and wine used in the sacrificial rite of the Mass is transformed into the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Christ (see Eucharist), with the subsequent logic that the wafer (being Christ), became worthy of worship; they disagreed with one another concerning the manner in which Christ is present in Holy Communion.

- Lutherans hold to an understanding closest to that of Real Presence (often characterized by critics by the term, "consubstantiation"), which affirms the true presence of Christ "in, with, and under" the bread and wine. Lutherans point to Jesus' statement, "This IS my body", while refusing to delve past Christ's words in order to describe just how this takes place. Lutheran teaching does, however, insist that Christ is present physically, rather than in a purely "spiritual" sense.

- Reformed teaching concerning the Lord's Supper ranges along the continuum from Calvin to Zwingli. The Reformed closest to Calvin emphasize the real presence, or sacramental presence, of Christ, saying that the sacrament is a means of saving grace through which the believer actually partakes of Christ, "but not in a carnal manner". Zwinglians deny that Christ makes himself present to the believer through the elements of the sacrament, but affirm that Christ is united to the believer through the faith toward which the supper is an aid (a view referred to somewhat derisively as memorialism).

- A Protestant holding a popular simplifiction of the Zwinglian view, without concern for theological intricacies as hinted at above, may see the Lord's Supper merely as a symbol of the shared faith of the participants, a commemoration of the facts of the crucifixion, and a reminder of their standing together as the Body of Christ.

In Christian theology, as the bread shares identity with Christ (which he calls, "my body"), in an analogous way, the Church shares identity with Him (and also is called "the Body of Christ"). Thus, controversies over the Lord's Supper only initially seem to be about the nature of bread and wine, but are ultimately about the nature of salvation, and therefore secondarily about the nature of the Church. And, indirectly, about the nature of Christ.

Authority

See the articles Lay, Ordained and Priesthood of all believers

Authority in the Church
Most Protestant churches fulfill similar rituals to Catholicism—chiefly baptism, communion, and matrimony—frequently varying or de-formalizing the rites.

Understanding of secular authority

- Lutheran - doctrine of the two kingdoms

- Reformed

- Radical - Anabaptist and peace churches

The Kingdom of God

Later development

Protestants can be differentiated according to how they have been influenced by important movements since the magisterial Reformation and the Puritan Reformation in England. Some of these movements have a common lineage, sometimes directly spawning later movements in the same groups.

Pietism 17th Century - Methodist movement 18th century

The German Pietist movement, together with the influence of the Puritan Reformation in England in the 17th century, were important influences upon John Wesley and Methodism, as well as through smaller, new groups such as the Religious Society of Friends ("Quakers") and the Moravian Brotherhood from Germany.

The practice of a spiritual life, typically combined with social engagement, predominates in classical Pietism, which was a protest against the doctrine-centeredness Protestant Orthodoxy of the times, in favor of depth of religious experience. Many of the more conservative Methodists went on to form the Holiness movement, which emphasized a rigorous experience of holiness in practical, daily life.

Evangelicalism 18th Century

Beginning at the end of 18th century, several international revivals of Pietism (such as the Great Awakening and the Second Great Awakening), took place across denominational lines, which are referred to generally as the Evangelical movement. The chief emphases of this movement were individual conversion, personal piety and Bible study, public morality often including Temperance and Abolitionism, de-emphasis of formalism in worship and in doctrine, a broadened role for laity (including women) in worship, evangelism and teaching, and cooperation in evangelism across denominational lines.

Pentecostalism 20th Century

Pentecostalism, as a movement, began in the United States early in the 20th century, starting especially within the Holiness movement. Seeking a return to the operation of New Testament gifts of the Holy Spirit, speaking in tongues as evidence of the "baptism of the Holy Ghost" became the leading feature. Divine healing and miracles were also emphasized. Pentecostalism swept through much of the Holiness movement, and eventually spawned hundreds of new denominations in the United States. A later "charismatic" movement also stressed the gifts of the Spirit, but often operated within existing denominations, rather than by coming out of them.

Modernism 20th Century

Modernism, or Liberalism, does not constitute a rigorous and well-defined school of theology, but is rather an inclination by some writers and teachers to integrate Christian thought into the spirit of the Age of Enlightenment. New understandings of history and the natural sciences of the day led directly to new approaches to theology.

Fundamentalism 20th Century

In reaction to liberal Bible critique, Fundamentalism arose in the 20th century, primarily in the United States and Canada, among those denominations most affected by Evangelicalism. Fundamentalism placed primary emphasis on the authority and sufficiency of the Bible, and typically advised separation from error, and cultural conservatism, as important aspects of the Christian life.

Neo-orthodoxy 20th century

A non-fundamentalist rejection of liberal Christianity, associated primarily with Karl Barth, neo-orthodoxy sought to counter-act the tendency of liberal theology to make theological accommodations to modern scientific perspectives. Sometimes called Crisis theology, according to the influence of philosophical existentialism on some important segments of the movement; also, somewhat confusingly, sometimes called neo-evangelicalism.

Neo-evangelicalism mid 20th Century

Neo-evangelicalism is a movement from the middle of the 20th century, that reacted to perceived excesses of Fundamentalism, adding to concern for biblical authority, an emphasis on liberal arts, co-operation among churches, Christian Apologetics, and non-denominational evangelization.

Ecumenism 20th Century

The ecumenical movement has had an influence on mainline churches, beginning at least in 1910 with the Edinburgh Missionary Conference. Its origins lay in the recognition of the need for cooperation on the mission field in Africa, Asia and Oceania. Since 1948, the World Council of Churches has been influential. There are also ecumenical bodies at regional, national and local levels across the globe. One, but not the only expression of the ecumenical movement, has been the move to form united churches, such as the Church of South India, the Church of North India, The United Church of Canada and the Uniting Church in Australia. There has been a strong engagement of Orthodox churches in the ecumenical movement.

Protestantism today
Evangelical and Pentecostal Protestantism are currently the fastest growing branches of Christianity in the world today.

Protestant denominations
Protestants often refer to specific Protestant churches and groups as denominations to imply that they are differently named parts of the whole church. This "invisible unity" is assumed to be imperfectly displayed, visibly: some denominations are less accepting of others, and the basic orthodoxy of some is questioned by most of the others. Individual denominations also have formed over very subtle theological differences. Other denominations are simply regional or ethnic expressions of the same beliefs. The actual number of distinct denominations is hard to calculate, but has been estimated to be over thirty thousand. Various ecumenical movements have attempted cooperation or reorganization of Protestant churches, according to various models of union, but divisions continue to outpace unions. Most denominations share common beliefs in the major aspects of the Christian faith, while differing in many secondary doctrines.

According to the World Christian Encyclopedia (2001) by David B. Barrett, et al, there are "over 33,000 denominations in 238 countries." Every year there is a net increase of around 270 to 300 denominations.

Protestant families of denominations
Please note that only general families are listed here (tens of thousands of individual denominations exist); some of these groups do not consider themselves as part of the Protestant movement, but are generally viewed as such by scholars and the public at large:

- Anabaptist and Baptist

- Anglican / Episcopalian

- Calvinist / Reformed and Presbyterian

- Lutheran

- Methodist / Wesleyan and the Holiness movement

- Pentecostal and Charismatic

- Quakerism

- Restoration movement

Number of Protestants

There are about 590 million Protestants worldwide. These include 170 million in North America, 160 million in Africa, 120 million in Europe, 70 million in Latin America, 60 million in Asia, and 10 million in Oceania. 27% of all Christians today are Protestants.

Well-known Protestant and Anglican religious figures
In alphabetical order by century

15th century

- Jan Hus, Czech reformist/dissident; burned to death by the Roman Catholic Church authorities.

16th century

- Jacobus Arminius, Dutch theologian, founder of school of thought known as Arminianism

- Heinrich Bullinger, successor of Zwingli, leading reformed theologian

- John Calvin, French speaking Reformer, theologian, founder of school of thought known as Calvinism

- Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury under Henry VIII, leader of the English Reformation

- John Knox, Scottish Calvinist reformer,

- Martin Luther, German religious reformer, theologian, founder of the Lutheran church in Germany, founder of Lutheranism

- Philipp Melanchthon, early Lutheran leader

- Menno Simons, founder of Mennonitism

- Huldrych Zwingli, founder of Swiss reformed tradition

17th-19th centuries

- Jacob Amman, founder of the Amish church

- Francis Asbury, early bishop of American Methodism

- Jonathan Edwards, American Puritan theologian, Great Awakening reformist preacher, Calvinist

- George Fox, Founder of the Religious Society of Friends

- William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury under Charles I of England

- Friedrich Schleiermacher, German theologian considered founder of Liberal Christianity

- Joseph Smith, Jr., Self proclaimed Prophet, translator of The Book of Mormon, and founder of Mormonism

- Philipp Jakob Spener, "godfather" of the Pietist movement

- Charles Wesley, Anglican priest, Methodist leader, poet, & hymn writer

- John Wesley, Anglican priest, founder of the Methodist movement

- George Whitefield, Great Awakening reformist preacher

20th century

- Karl Barth, German theologian along with Emil Brunner known for Dialectical theology and Neo-orthodox theology

- Dietrich Bonhoeffer, German theologian, involved in the resistance against Nazism and executed shortly before the end of World War 2

- Jerry Falwell, American evangelist and political activist

- Billy Graham, American evangelist

- Martin Luther King, Jr., peace and civil rights activist

- C. S. Lewis, apologist / fiction writer

- Reinhold Niebuhr, American theologion and ethicist

- Pat Robertson, American charismatic/fundamentalist leader

- Paul Tillich, Lutheran existentialist theologian

- Desmond Tutu, Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, South Africa, peace activist

- John Howard Yoder, Mennonite theologian and ethicist

- Nicky Gumbel, Anglican British evangelist

21st century

- John B. Cobb, theologian, involved in Process Theology

- Franklin Graham, American evangelist (son of Billy Graham)

- Stanley Hauerwas, American Christian theologian and ethicist

See also

- Anti-Catholicism

- Anti-Protestantism

- Protestant Reformation

- Protestant work ethic

- Christian timeline for Renaissance & Reformation

- Christianity

- Christian eschatology

External links
Defense of Protestant Christianity:

- [http://www.ccir.ed.ac.uk/~jad/glb_sola.html Is Sola Scriptura a Protestant Concoction? by Dr. Greg Bahnsen ]

- [http://www.firstthings.com/ftissues/ft9508/opinion/leithart.html Why Protestants Still Protest by Peter J. Leithart]

- [http://lionofjudah.tribulationforces.com/world_religions/catholic.html Protestant criticisms of Roman Catholicism]

- [http://www.apologeticsinfo.org/resource.html Apologetics Information Ministry]

Criticisms of Protestant Christianity:

- [http://protestantism.blogspot.com/ Anti-protestant analysis]

- [http://catholiceducation.org/articles/apologetics/ap0097.html Why Only Catholicism Can Make Protestantism Work] by Mark Brumley

Miscellaneous:

- [http://catalystresources.org/issues/303balmer.html The Future of American Protestantism] from Catalyst (United Methodist perspective)

Category:Reformation

Category:Christianity

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ms:Protestan

ja:プロテスタント

Church of England
The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England, and acts as the 'mother' and senior branch of the worldwide Anglican Communion, as well as a founding member of the Porvoo Communion.

Porvoo Communions, many with histories stretching back centuries.]]

Theology and sociology
The Church of England considers itself to stand both in a reformed tradition and in a catholic (but not Roman Catholic) church tradition: Reformed insofar as many of the principles of the Protestant Reformation have influenced it, and insofar as it does not accept Papal authority; Catholic, in that it views itself as the 'unbroken continuation of the early apostolic and later medieval' "universal church", rather than as a 'new formation'. In its practices, furthermore, the Church of England remains closer to Roman Catholicism than most Protestant Churches. It holds many relatively conservative theological beliefs, its liturgical form of worship can feature tradition and ceremony, and its organisation embodies a belief in apostolic succession through the historical episcopal hierarchy of archbishops, bishops, and dioceses.

In many people's eyes, however, the Church of England has as its primary distinguishing mark its breadth and 'open-mindedness'. In addition to the traditional mainstream, the church has long included "high church" and "low church" factions with their own particular preferences. Today, practices range from those of the Anglo-Catholics, who emphasise liturgy and sacraments, to the far less ceremonial services of Evangelicals and Charismatics. But this "broad church" faces various contentious doctrinal questions raised by the development of modern society, such as conflicts over the ordination of women as priests (accepted in 1992 and begun in 1994), and the status of noncelibate homosexual clergy (still unsettled today). In July 2005, the divisions were once again apparent, as the General Synod voted to "set in train" the process of allowing the ordination of women as bishops, scheduling debate on the specific legislation for February, 2006.

Governance and administration
The British monarch (at present, Elizabeth II), has the constitutional title of "Supreme Governor of the Church of England". In practice, however, the effective leadership falls to the Archbishop of Canterbury. The worldwide Anglican Communion of independent national or regional churches recognises the Archbishop of Canterbury as a kind of 'symbolic' leader. Dr Rowan Douglas Williams has served as Archbishop of Canterbury since 2002.

The Church of England has a legislative body, the General Synod. However, fundamental legislation still has to pass through the UK Parliament. The church has its own judicial branch, known as the Ecclesiastical courts, which likewise form a part of the UK court system.

In addition to England proper, the jurisdiction of the Church of England extends to the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands. In recent years, expatriate congregations on the continent of Europe have become the Diocese in Europe.

History

Main article: History of the Church of England

The Church of England traces its formal corporate history from the 597 Augustinian mission, stresses its continuity and identity with the primitive universal Western church, and notes the consolidation of its particular independent and national character in the post-Reformation events of Tudor England.

Christianity arrived in Britain in the first or second centuries (probably via the tin trade route through Ireland and Spain), and existed independently of the Church of Rome, as did many other Christian communities of that era. Records note British bishops as attending the Council of Arles in 314. The Pope sent Saint Augustine from Rome in the 6th century to evangelise the Angles in (597). With the help of Christians already residing in Kent, he established his church in Canterbury, the capital of Kent, and became the first in the series of archbishops of Canterbury.

Simultaneously, the Celtic Church of St.Columba continued to evangelise Scotland. The Celtic Church of North Britain submitted in some sense to the 'authority' of Rome at the Council of Whitby in 644. Over the next few centuries, the Roman system introduced by Augustine gradually absorbed the pre-existing Celtic Christian churches.

England remained a Roman Catholic country for nearly a thousand years, but then the church separated itself from Rome in 1534, during the reign of King Henry VIII, though it briefly rejoined Rome during the reign of Queen Mary I, in 1555. Since that time, England has been known as a 'stronghold' of Protestantism, and of world-wide Christian evangelism, eventually being eclipsed in these activities during the twentieth century by one of her former colonies, the United States.

Related churches
In Scotland, the Church of Scotland is recognised in law (Church of Scotland Act 1921) as the "national church", but since 1929 it has not been "established" in the same manner as the Church of England. In particular, the state 'recognises' the independence of the Church of Scotland in matters spiritual, thus no ministers are appointed by the Crown or the State. The Church of Scotland has a Presbyterian system of government. A smaller Anglican church also exists in Scotland, known as the Scottish Episcopal Church, which is in full communion with the Church of England.

The Church in Wales underwent disestablishment in 1920, and became an independent member of the Anglican Communion.

The Church of Ireland had official established church status in Ireland until 1871, although the bulk of the Irish people in practice remained mostly Roman Catholic.

The Church of England stands in full communion with the other churches in the Anglican Communion, and separately with the other signatories of the Porvoo Communion. The Church of England is also a full member of the Conference of European Churches.

Financial situation
The Church of England, although an established church, does not receive any direct government support. Donations comprise its largest source of income, though it also relies heavily on the income from its various historic endowments. As of 2005, the Church of England had estimated total [http://www.cofe.anglican.org/info/funding/ outgoings] of around £900 million.

Historically, individual parishes both raised and spent the vast majority of the Church's funding, meaning that clergy pay depended on the wealth of the parish, and parish advowsons (the right to appoint clergy to particular parishes) could become extremely valuable gifts. Individual dioceses also held considerable assets: the Diocese of Durham possessed such vast wealth and temporal power that its Bishop became known as the 'Prince-Bishop'. Since the mid-19th century, however, the Church has made various moves to 'equalise' the situation, and clergy within each diocese now receive standard stipends paid from diocesan funds. Meanwhile, the Church moved the majority of its income-generating assets (which in the past included a great deal of land, but today mostly take the form of financial stocks and bonds) out of the hands of individual clergy and bishops to the care of a body called the Church Commissioners, which uses these funds to pay a range of non-parish expenses, including clergy pensions, and the expenses of cathedrals and bishops' houses. These [http://www.cofe.anglican.org/about/churchcommissioners/annualreport/ funds] amount to around £3.9 billion, and generate income of around £164 million each year (as of 2003), around a fifth of the Church's overall income.

The Church Commissioners give some of this money as 'grants' to local parishes; but the majority of the financial burden of church upkeep and the work of local parishes still rests with individual parish and diocese, which meet their requirements from donations. Direct donations to the church (not including legacies) come to around £460 million per year, while parish and diocese reserve funds generate another £100 million. Funds raised in individual parishes account for almost all of this money, and the majority of it remains in the parish which raises it, meaning that the resources available to parishes still vary enormously, according to the level of donations they can raise.

Most parishes give a portion of their money, however, to the diocese as a 'quota'. While this is not a compulsory payment, dioceses strongly encourage and rely on it being paid; it is usually only withheld by parishes either if are unable to find the funds or as a specific act of protest. As well as paying central diocesan expenses such as the running of diocesan offices, these diocesan funds also provide clergy pay and housing expenses (which total around £260 million per year across all dioceses), meaning that clergy living conditions no longer depend on parish-specific fundraising.

Although asset-rich, the Church of England has to look after and maintain its thousands of churches nationwide — the lion's share of England's built heritage. As current congregation numbers stand at relatively low levels and as maintenance bills increase as the buildings grow older, many of these churches cannot maintain economic self-sufficiency; but their historical and architectural importance make it difficult to sell them. In recent years, cathedrals and other famous churches have met some of their maintenance costs with grants from organisations such as English Heritage; but the Church Commissioners and [http://www.churchcare.co.uk/fundraising.html local fundraisers] must foot the bill entirely in the case of most small parish churches. (The government, however, does provide some assistance in the form of tax breaks, for example a 100 percent VAT refund for renovations to religious buildings.)

In addition to consecrated buildings, the Church also controls numerous ancillary buildings attached to or associated with churches, including a good deal of clergy housing. As well as vicarages and rectories, this housing includes residences (called 'palaces') for each of the Church's 114 bishops. In some cases, this name seems entirely apt; buildings such as Archbishop of Canterbury's Lambeth Palace in London and Old Palace at Canterbury have truly palatial dimensions, while the Bishop of Durham's Auckland Palace has 50 rooms, a banqueting hall and 30 acres (120,000 m²) of parkland. However, many bishops have found the older palaces inappropriate for today's lifestyles, and some bishops' 'palaces' are simply ordinary 4-bedroomed houses. Many dioceses which have retained large palaces now employ part of the space as administrative offices, while the bishops and their families live in a small apartment within the palace; and in recent years some dioceses have managed to put their palaces' excess space and grandeur to profitable use as conference centres. The size of the bishops' households has also shrunk dramatically and their budgets for entertaining and servants form a tiny fraction of their pre-20th-century levels.

See also

- History of the Church of England

- List of Church of England dioceses

- British monarchy

- History of England

- Anglicanism

- Book of Common Prayer

- Common Worship

- Anglican Communion

- General Synod

- antidisestablishmentarianism

- Sydney Anglicans

- Religion in the United Kingdom

- UK topics

- List of Church of England bishops

- United Reformed Church

- John Wesley

- Appointment of Church of England bishops

- Episcopal Church in the United States of America

External link

- [http://www.cofe.anglican.org/ Church of England website]

ja:イギリス国教会

Category:Church of England
Category:Religion in the United Kingdom
Category:State churches (Christian)

Kingdom of Scotland

:This article is about the historical state called the Kingdom of Scotland (843-1707). For information about the modern country, see the main article: Scotland.

The Kingdom of Scotland was a state located in Western Europe, in the northern third of the island of Great Britain. It existed from 843 until the Acts of Union 1707 which united it with the Kingdom of England (927-1707) to form the Kingdom of Great Britain (1707-1800).

Government
Monarchy

History
:Main article: History of Scotland

The Kingdom of Scotland was united in 843, by King Kenneth I of Scotland.
During the period leading up to union with England, Scotland developed its own legal, educational, and monetary systems, the signs of which can still be seen today. Scotland's kings placed great importance on the strategic stronghold of Stirling, leading to the battles of Stirling Bridge and Bannockburn during the Wars of Scottish Independence, when the historic figures of William Wallace and Robert the Bruce emerged.

Union with England
Scotland's monarch, King James VI, succeeded to the throne of the Kingdom of England in 1603, becoming James I of England, after the death of Elizabeth I of England. This was merely a personal union: the two nations shared a head of state but remained sovereign, independent states.

The Kingdom of Scotland ceased to be a state on 1 May 1707, following the implementation of the Treaty of Union, which merged the Kingdom of Scotland with the Kingdom of England, creating the Kingdom of Great Britain.

The national flag of Scotland (the Saltire) currently forms part of the modern day Union Flag.

See also
Union Flag

- List of monarchs of Scotland

- List of monarchs of Scotland in Gaelic

- Scottish monarchs family tree

- Parliament of Scotland

- Royal Scottish Navy

- Honours of Scotland

- Linlithgow Palace

- Falkland Palace

- Bank of Scotland

- Scottish Term Day

- Pound Scots

Category:History of Scotland
Category:Former countries in Europe
Category:Former monarchies
Category:Scottish monarchy

Abu abdissalam

Abu Abdissalam was born in Coventry, UK and was raised in London. He graduated from City University, London in Computer Science and went on to study the Islamic Sciences in Dar Al-Hadith in Makkah. He has studied under many scholars in various countries.

He holds ijazahs in the six books of hadith: Bukhari, Muslim, Tirmidhi, Abu Dawood, Na'sai and Ibn Majah.

He also has ijazas for the Sharh of Aqidah Tahawiyyah of Ibn Abdil Izz al-Hanafi, Shaykh Muhammmad Amin al Harari's Sharh of Muqadimmah of Muslim, and one in Nuzhat an Nazr Sharh Nukhbat al-Fikr of Ibn Hajar. [Taken from www.islaam.net]

He was a founding member of [http://www.islaam.net Islamic Network]. (I am not sure if he still is as he now resides in Makkah.)

He has translated a number of Islamic texts from Arabic into English and has been quite active in da'wah in the UK and around the world.

His website is:
http://www.abuabdissalam.com

Abdissalam

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Brutus of Troy