- •Boadicea
- •The roman invasion
- •Hadrian’s Wall
- •The Roman Towns
- •The Saxon Invasion
- •The traces of Anglo-Saxon language and culture in modern Britain
- •Conversion to Christianity
- •Early Christians
- •St Augustine
- •The Venerable Bede
- •The Vikings
- •Alfred the Great
- •Edward the Confessor
- •The Norman Invasion
- •The Battle at Hastings
- •Feudal society in Britain
- •The Norman Times
- •William Rufus, Robert and Henry I
- •The Plantagenets
- •Henry II
- •Richard I
- •King John
- •Magna Charta
- •Thomas a Becket
- •The beginning of Parliament
- •The 14th century: war with Scotland and France
- •The code of chivalry
- •The Black Death
- •The Watt Tyler revolt
- •John Wycliffe and his translation of the Bible
- •The Wars of the Roses: roots & procedures
- •The structure of the 15th century society in Britain: nobility, gentlemen, freemen, merchants
- •The guilds
- •The absolute monarchy of Henry VII Tudor
- •The English Reformation
- •Henry VIII and his heirs
- •The Golden Age of Elizabeth I
- •The Stuart kings and their conflicts with the Parliament
- •The Civil war (1642) and the New Model Army
- •Oliver Cromwell and the Commonwealth
- •The Restoration of monarchy
- •The great Plague (1665)
- •The Great Fire of London (1666)
- •The Glorious Revolution (1688)
- •William III and Mary II
- •The Hanoverian dynasty
- •George I, George II, George III
- •North American colonies (history)
- •The Boston Tea Party
- •The technological revolution
- •The war with France Horatio Nelson
- •The Battle of Trafalgar
- •Waterloo
- •A revolution in the arts The Romantic movement: poetry and painting(The Lake School; Turner & Constable)
- •The post-Napoleonic wars period The Chartist movement
- •The Victorian Era
- •The British Empire
The 14th century: war with Scotland and France
Open hostilities broke out as French ships began scouting coastal settlements on the English Channel and in 1337 Philip reclaimed the Gascon fief, citing feudal law and saying that Edward had broken his oath by not attending to the needs and demands of his lord. Edward III responded by saying he was in fact the rightful heir to the French throne, and on All Saints' Day, Henry Burghersh, Bishop of Lincoln, arrived in Paris with the defiance of the king of England. War had been declared.
Battle of Sluys from a manuscript of Froissart's Chronicles, Bruge, c.1470.
In the early years of the war, Edward III allied with the nobles of the Low Countries and the burghers of Flanders, but after two campaigns where nothing was achieved, the alliance fell apart in 1340.
In July 1346, Edward mounted a major invasion across the Channel, landing in the Cotentin. The English army captured Caen in just one day, surprising the French who had expected the city to hold out much longer. The famous Battle of Crécy was a complete disaster for the French, largely credited to the English longbowmen and the French king, who allowed his army to attack before they were ready.
The French countryside at this point began to fall into complete chaos.
The code of chivalry
There was not an authentic Code of Chivalry as such. The Code of Chivalry was a moral system which went beyond rules of combat and introduced the concept of Chivalrous conduct - qualities idealized by the Medieval knights such as bravery, courtesy, honor and great gallantry toward women. The Codes of chivalry also incorporated the notion of courtly love. The Code of Chivalry was the honor code of the knight. The Code of Chivalry was an important part of the society and lives of people who lived during the Medieval times and was understood by all.
The Black Death
The Black Death was one of the most devastating pandemics in human history, peaking in Europe between 1348 and 1350. Of several competing theories, the dominant explanation for the Black Death is the plague theory, which attributes the outbreak to the bacterium Yersinia pestis. Thought to have started in China, it travelled along the Silk Road and reached the Crimea by 1346. From there, probably carried by Oriental rat fleas living on the black rats that were regular passengers on merchant ships, it spread throughout the Mediterranean and Europe.
The Black Death is estimated to have killed 30–60 percent of Europe's population,[1] reducing the world's population from an estimated 450 million to between 350 and 375 million in the 14th century. The aftermath of the plague created a series of religious, social and economic upheavals, which had profound effects on the course of European history. It took 150 years for Europe's population to recover. The plague returned at various times, killing more people, until it left Europe in the 19th century.
The Watt Tyler revolt
Reacting to the introduction of the oppressive poll tax, which the king had imposed because not enough income had been collected the previous year, Tyler led a mixed group "a very great number of [whom] were not simply peasants but village craftsmen and tradesmen", in taking Canterbury, before advancing on to Blackheath, outside London. Tyler then entered the city of London at the head of a group estimated at numbering over 50,000. The rebels also destroyed the Savoy palace during subsequent rioting and killed the king's uncle. The king met the rebel army at Mile End and promised to address the people's grievances, which included the unpopular taxes.
Twenty thousand people assembled at Smithfield. Richard II agreed to meet the leaders of the revolt, and listen to their demands. Wat Tyler decided to ride out alone and parley with the King. What was said between Wat Tyler and the King is largely conjecture and little is known of the exact details of the encounter; however, by all accounts the unarmed Tyler was suddenly attacked without warning and killed by the Lord Mayor of London, Sir William Walworth and John Cavendish, a member of the king's group. This unprovoked betrayal of the truce flag and Tyler's killing threw the people into a panic. Not being organized as a military force, they broke and began to flee for their lives.