The history of England

British history-United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. An island country in northwest Europe, whose territory includes England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland on the island of Great Britain and many small islands. The west and northwest are bordered by the Atlantic Ocean, and the south and east are across the sea from France, the Netherlands and Denmark. The coastline is tortuous and long, and the rivers on the island are vertical and horizontal, which is convenient for shipping. It covers an area of 244 108 square kilometers and has a population of 56.256 million (1984), mainly English, accounting for more than 80% of the population, followed by Scots, Irish and Welsh. Most residents believe in Christianity, most of them belong to the Church of England (Anglican Church), some belong to church of scotland, and some residents believe in Catholicism. Common English, capital London.

In ancient Britain, there were human activities in the British Isles very early. Around 3000 BC, Iberians came from the European continent to settle in the southeast of Great Britain. After about 700 BC, Celts living in western Europe moved into the British Isles, and one of them was called bretons, from which the name Britain probably came. It is well known that the Celts used iron, and the technology of plows is constantly improving. They have already used money. The development of productive forces has promoted the gradual differentiation of Carte society.

In 55 BC and 54 BC, the Roman legions led by G.J. Caesar invaded Britain twice, both of which were repelled by the British. In 43 AD, the Roman emperor Tiberius Claudius Drusus Nero Germanicus led an army to invade Britain. After conquering Britain, it became a province of the Roman Empire. With London at the mouth of the Thames as the center, the Romans built avenues extending in all directions, connecting cities all over the world, making London the center of Roman British rule and foreign relations. In order to prevent the Celtics in the north from going south, during the reign of the Roman emperor P.A. Hadrian in 65438+ 1920, the Romans built the Great Wall in northern Great Britain, with a total length of 1 18km, which was called Hadrian's Great Wall in history (see color map). In the southeast region ruled by the Romans, the upper classes of the Romans and Celts seized the communal lands of the tribes, established slave farms, and turned Celts or prisoners of war into slaves. The Romans forced slaves to engage in farming and mining, and slave traders also sold slaves to the European continent. In the 3rd and 4th centuries, with the intensification of slave resistance, the Roman Empire gradually declined. Around the middle of the 4th century, Britain's struggle against Roman rule gradually intensified. By 407, all Roman troops were forced to leave Britain, and Roman rule over Britain ended. In the Middle Ages, Britain witnessed the formation, development and decline of the feudal mode of production from the German invasion in the 5th and 6th centuries to the bourgeois revolution in the middle of17th century. There are also views in academic circles that Norman Conquest is the beginning of English medieval history.

After the Anglo-Saxons entered Britain and the Romans retreated, Germanic tribes such as Anglo-Saxons and Jutes living near the mouth of the Elbe River and southern Denmark began to invade Britain in the middle of the 5th century. The invasion lasted about a century and a half. Invaders ransacked towns and villages, Britons were killed or enslaved, some were driven to the mountains in the west and northwest, and most of them merged with the invaders to form the later English, or English. By the beginning of the 7th century, the invaders had established seven powerful countries: Mercia, Northumbria and East Anglia in the east and northeast, Wessex, Essex and Sussex in the south and Kent in the southeast. This period is called the "Seven Kingdoms Period".

When the Anglo-Saxons invaded, it was a clan and tribal organization. In the process of invasion, the original clan organization disintegrated and was replaced by a village society composed of regions. The land in the village is publicly owned and used by the free farmers in the village. With the development of productive forces, land has gradually become private property, and nobles, big landlords, dependent farmers and slaves have emerged. Village community has become a form of transition from clan commune land ownership to feudal land ownership, which is generally considered to be the beginning of feudal process in British society. At the end of the 6th century, Christianity was introduced to Britain. In 597, Pope Gregory I (reigned from 590 to 604) sent friar Augustine to preach in England. By the second half of the 7th century, all England had basically converted to Roman Christianity. Danish invasion Since the end of the 8th century, Scandinavians, mainly Danes, have invaded Britain many times. In order to fight against the Danes, egbert, king of Wessex (reigned from 802 to 839), unified the seven countries in 827 and established a unified English kingdom. By the end of the 9th century, the Danes had established a large settlement on the island of Great Britain. In 879, King Alfred signed a treaty with the Danes, which placed the northeast of England under the jurisdiction of Denmark and called it the "Danish area". /kloc-At the beginning of the 0 th century, the successors of King Alfred gradually recovered Denmark. 165438+At the beginning of the 20th century, the Danes made a comeback, and King Knut the Great of Denmark became the king of England (10 16 ~ 1035 reigned). After the death of Knut's son, the British throne returned to Edward (reigned 1042 ~ 1066). During the Danish occupation, the process of feudalism in Britain was accelerated. Due to frequent wars and heavy taxes, especially the heavy "Danish gold", free farmers have gone bankrupt and become dependent farmers. The king granted land to secular nobles in the form of imperial edicts and became a feudal territory. In 930, the king of England ordered that "(free) people must have their masters". In order to avoid the disaster of war, farmers pay taxes and seek safety, they give their land to the big landlords and take it back for farming, indicating that they are protected by the landlords. The king also gave the secular landlords "privilege", that is, the power to exercise comprehensive political, economic and legal rule over the peasants attached to the territory. Privilege accelerated the enslavement of farmers.

Norman conquered King Edward of England and died childless. William, Duke of Normandy, invaded in 1066. In the same year 10, he entered London and was crowned king of William I (in the reign of 1066 ~ 1087). He was known as "William the Conqueror" in history, the Norman Dynasty (1066 ~ 65487). Norman conquest accelerated the process of feudalism that had already begun, and the feudal mode of production was basically established. After William conquered England, he declared himself the supreme owner of the land. He confiscated a large number of land of Anglo-Saxon nobles and free peasants, took about 1/6 of cultivated land and about 1/3 of forest area for himself, and distributed the rest to his Norman cronies and followers, and awarded the title of nobility according to the number of fenced land. The church was also taken over by the normans. The vassals of William I divided their fiefs into small pieces and gave them to their vassals. Through the enfeoffment of land, a strict feudal hierarchy was established. William not only asked his immediate bannermen to swear allegiance, but also asked his bannermen to be loyal to him.

1086, William sent ministers to investigate the whole country and compiled a land survey book (also called land inventory), which recorded in detail how much land in each county belongs to the king, how much land belongs to the Lord, how many vassals there are in each manor, how many free farmers, dependent farmers and slaves, how many forests, grasslands, pastures, mills and fish ponds, and how much monetary income there is in the territory. The purpose of compiling the inventory is to let the king know the property status of the princes in detail, so as to require them to strictly fulfill their feudal obligations. People are afraid of this kind of investigation and feel that they are facing doomsday judgment, so the investigation list is called doomsday judgment book. According to this survey, the population of Britain at that time was about1.50 ~ 2 million, with nobles accounting for about 4%, free peasants accounting for 1.2% and serfs and other dependent peasants accounting for more than 70%. This shows that serfdom developed rapidly after the Norman conquest. At the local level, the king's power is mainly exercised through the county magistrate. The sheriff is appointed by the king and directly under his jurisdiction. In order to discuss state affairs, the king organized the Privy Council, which was then called the Senate or the King's Court. Through the above measures, the Norman dynasty established a more powerful centralized feudal rule than France. This is an important feature of British feudalism. Powerful kingship was widely supported by small and medium feudal lords, churches and wealthy citizens, who demanded the protection of kingship. The feudal lords opposed the excessive concentration of kingship, but their fiefs were scattered, so it was difficult to separate one side from the kingship.