 |
|
|
|
England |
|
|
Languages |
English, Welsh, Scots Gaelic |
|
Capital |
London |
|
Other main cities |
Birmingham, Leeds, Liverpool |
|
Area (km2) |
244,820 |
|
Population |
59,511,464 |
|
Currency |
Pound sterling |
|
|
| History of England |
|
|
The United Kingdom consists of England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland.
The United Kingdom is a constitutional monarchy and parliamentary democracy, with a Queen and a Parliament that has two houses: the House of Lords and the House of Commons.
Stonehenge and other examples of prehistoric culture are what remains of the earliest inhabitants of Britain. Celtic peoples followed. After 4 centuries of Roman rule, Britain fell prey to invading hordes of Angles, Saxons and Jutes, and it was not until the 10th Century that the country became united under the kings of Wessex.
Following the death of Edward the Confessor (1066), William, Duke of Normandy, invaded England, defeating the Saxon king, Harold II, at the Battle of Hastings (1066). The Norman Conquest introduced Norman French law and feudalism.
The reign of Henry II (1154-89) saw an increasing centralization of royal power, but in 1215 John was forced to sign the Magna Carta, awarding the people, especially the nobles, certain basic rights. Edward III's claim to the throne of France led to the Hundred Years' War (1338-1453) and the loss of almost all the English territory in France.
In England, the great poverty and discontent caused by the war were intensified by the outbreak of the Black Death. The War of the Roses (1455-85), a struggle for the throne between the House of York and the House of Lancaster, ended in the victory of Henry Tudor (Henry VII) at Bosworth Field (1485).
|
| 1 | 2 | 3 |
|
|
|
|
